Over 53 lakh school students in Maharashtra fail to enrol for Aadhaar

PUNE: The state education department has failed to achieve its 100% Aadhaar card enrolment target of school students. More than 53 lakh students in Maharashtra have missed the April 30 deadline.
The state education department said that the registration would be needed to seek government aid, scholarships and also record daily attendance and student data on the school portal.
Teachers were told to ensure each child in their school is registered for Aadhaar. The state had said in January that before the start of the next academic year, each student in a government-aided or unaided school must have an Aadhaar card, and it will eventually be linked to the government’s students portal.
Commissioner of education Suraj Mandhare said Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts have topped in number of registrations in Maharashtra, while the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has recorded the least number of registrations. “The major issue in registration is from institutes trying to hide the student data as many have submitted fake enrolments in the past,” Mandhare said, adding,“So far, we have found over 5 lakh invalid cards, which is a serious issue. We must cleanse the system. There will be temporary issues but we have to cope with them.”
The state education department is verifying 39 lakh mismatched Aadhaar cards.
“Data on the portal and Aadhaar cards issued will be used for student-teacher allotment. This will be done during the teachers’ transfer in May before the new academic sessions begin,” added Mandhare.