Schools under pressure for 100% APAAR registration, with risk of pay cuts
A notice from district education officer warned schools: “If the registration work is not completed by the deadline, salaries will not be released.”
Mumbai: School teachers and principals are under pressure from the State Education Department to complete the registration process for the Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR) before the year ends. They face the threat of salary cuts and derecognition of schools, particularly in the case of unaided and self-financed institutions, if they fail to comply.

APAAR, part of the central government’s ‘One Nation, One Student’ initiative, aims to simplify academic tracking and document management. However, its implementation is mired in logistical and ethical challenges. Previously teachers have cited technical issues on the APAAR portal, which delays the process, and parents have cited privacy concerns.
The Kolhapur district education officer sent a notice to all schools in Kolhapur on Thursday, saying despite repeated deadlines, the APAAR registration and Adhaar validation of students in secondary and higher secondary schools have not reached 100%.
The first deadline was set for November 20. It was extended to November 30, then to December 8 and again to December 28.
The notice warned: “If the registration work is not completed by the deadline, salaries will not be released, and unaided schools risk losing their recognition.”
Similar directives have been issued in the last week by education officers across the state warning schools to meet the 100% target, something the state government has failed to achieve even after organizing four ‘Mega APAAR Diwas’ in the last two months, to speed up APAAR ID generation process.
“In a rush to lead in APAAR registration, district officials are aggressively pushing principals and teachers,” said Mahendra Ganpule, member of the Maharashtra State Principals Association.
A teacher from a Mumbai-based unaided school pointed out the difficulties in linking student names with their Aadhaar details. “In a cosmopolitan city like Mumbai, students come from across the country, so variations in name formats on Aadhaar cards create discrepancies. Many parents’ names on Aadhaar cards do not match school records, making data linkage impossible,” the teacher explained.
Another teacher resonated with the difficulties, adding that regional naming conventions, such as adding ‘Kumar’ before names, create mismatches between the school and Aadhaar records. “During UDISE registration, we requested parents to update their Aadhaar details, but now it’s challenging to make further corrections,” she said. UDISE stands for Unified District Information System for Education, a database of schools imparting formal education from pre-primary to Class 12 in India.
Getting parental consent is another significant hurdle for teachers. Many parents are not willing to share their child’s personal data, citing data privacy concerns. Interestingly, the official website of APAAR states that registration is not mandatory, which adds to the confusion and resistance.
Ganpule criticised the education department for forcing deadlines on schools without addressing the practical issues they are facing. “Instead of supporting schools in resolving these challenges, the department is forcing compliance. Mechanisms to address these problems exist. But they are either non-functional or extremely slow, making it difficult for principals to complete registrations promptly,” he said.
Government officials acknowledge the pressure and claim they too are under duress from higher authorities to make the state a frontrunner in APAAR registration. “We have achieved more than 65% registrations, but need to push harder,” an official admitted. “This pressure trickles down to schools, which are working tirelessly to meet these targets.”

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