Schools in Mumbai fail to meet deadline for Aadhaar cards

More than 50% students and teachers across the city’s secondary schools have not yet got their Aadhaar cards, forcing the education department to extend the deadline for acquiring these cards with a unique identification (UID) number to June 30.

More than 50% students and teachers across the city’s secondary schools have not yet got their Aadhaar cards, forcing the education department to extend the deadline for acquiring these cards with a unique identification (UID) number to June 30.

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All city schools including government aided and private unaided had to ensure that their students and teachers had acquired the card by May 31.

Aadhaar cards have become a must for teachers to get salaries and students to claim benefits for 27 items, including stationery, uniforms, books and scholarships.

A review conducted by the deputy director of education, Mumbai division, in the first week of June, revealed that 4.51 lakh students out of a total of 8.67 lakh students still do not have Aadhaar cards.

Similarly, 9476 teachers out of 28,627 teachers, between Class 5 to 10 do not have Aadhaar cards.

‘’We had urged schools to send their teachers and students to the nearest BMC ward office to get their Aadhaar card,” said NB Chavan, deputy director of education.

The UID number will help the department in knowing the exact number of students enrolled in schools.

The number will also be used to record the attendance of students and teachers online, allowing the government to keep a check on bogus students and absentee teachers.

In a statewide survey in October 2011, many schools were found to be indulging in malpractices by showing bogus students on their rolls.