Parents, students, teachers and officials at the public hearing on school education conducted by Telangana Education Commission at the Hyderabad District Collectorate in Hyderabad on Tuesday (February 18, 2025).
| Photo Credit: SIDDHANT THAKUR
Government school headmasters in Hyderabad have been denying admissions to students if they lack an Aadhaar card. Several parents, whether poor, single, divorced or migrated to the city for livelihood, were denied enrolment of their children because they did not have the Aadhaar credentials.
These statements are not allegations but the experiences of several teachers who had tried all means to enrol the children, but were eventually rejected by the school heads. But now, for the first time these teachers expressed it without fear or hesitation on a public platform and the Telangana Education Commission (TEC) that was conducting the public hearing, recorded it.
According to Rana Saleem, a teacher from Government School in Moghalpura of Charminar block, she got 32 students for admission into Class 1 this year, but only 10 of them had Aadhaar cards.
“The remaining 22 had no Aadhaar. All these children come from poor and daily-wage families and sending them away means they would become child labourers. So, for the time being I just entered the last four digits as 9999 or a combination and took them,” she explained.
To complete a student’s enrolment on Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) — the online real-time school database — or complete APAAR (Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry) ‘One Nation One Student’ ID registration, both initiatives of the Ministry of Education, Aadhaar is mandatory. And Aadhaar cannot be obtained without one’s date of birth certificate.
Ms. Saleem’s complaint was that local officials and agents were demanding up to ₹4000 per birth certificate and she suggested that school bonafide certificate should be made sufficient for the student’s Aadhaar creation. Ms. Saleem opened a can of worms, it’s not just about APAAR registration, but mandatory Aadhaar for school admission.
A teacher from Bandlaguda who had students for enrolment from a far-off district in the State said her headmaster had to send them away because the children did not have Aadhaar cards. She also pointed to an example of how a child of divorced parents was also denied admission because the child’s Aadhaar and the phone number linked could not be got from the parent.
To a visibly shocked Akunuri Murali — Chairperson of TEC — who was listening to the teachers’ accounts, the answer to his question ‘Clearly, are students denied admission for not having Aadhaar?’ was a loud yes!
“To deny admission for lack of Aadhaar is a crime. Even the Supreme Court says it’s not mandatory,” he said.
An official of the Hyderabad District Educational Office, who was asked to clarify, said that UDISE has two options for enrolment: ‘With Aadhaar’ and ‘Without Aadhaar’.
According to several Headmasters who spoke to this correspondent, the two options are available only for enrolment into Class 1. But even then, APAAR cannot be created, which requires names and details on Aadhaar card, including the parents’ Aadhaar.
“It is as simple as saying you don’t have the Right to Education, if you don’t have Aadhaar. The DEO, the State and Central governments too know this, but there has been no solution so far,” a headmaster said.
A headmaster of a primary school in Secunderabad, on condition of anonymity, said: “I have children from Bihar and West Bengal too since their parents are painters or carpenters here. I got them admitted taking the risk that they would arrange Aadhaar in three or four months. How many HMs will take that risk, given the repeat reminders for APAAR and UDISE from authorities? I think it would be 10-12% of all HMs in the State, the rest would deny admission.”
Published – February 18, 2025 07:38 pm IST
