Students studying in private, government, aided, non-aided schools of Karnataka will get a unique identity number

Updated on: Thursday, January 10, 2013

Now on, each of the one crore students studying in private, government, aided, non-aided schools of Karnataka will get a unique identity number, given by the education department. It's the first ever attempt made in the country, claims the department.

The 17-digit number given to all children from Class 1 to 10 will help the department track kids throughout their schooling. The project, called Hejje Guruthu, was launched by the department on Wednesday.

The website is open to the public, which can make objections, if any. In case of any mistakes in a student's data, it can be brought to the notice of the block education officer, and the changes will be made accordingly. Objections can be filed till February 2, 2013. The final update will be publicized on the website on March 5, 2013.

The data will have a student's date of birth, date of admission, parents' names, attendance, region, details of where the student stays, hostel or home, medium of instruction and other details. The online profile of children can be seen in .

Minister for education Visveshwara Hegde Kageri told that efforts would be made to include educational, extra-curricular performance of students in the online tracking system.

This data bank will help the department keep track of children dropping out of school. A year ago, the department had seen over 23,000 children dropping out of schools. Kumar Naik G, principal secretary, primary and secondary education said, "With this data bank in place, we can keep track of every kid and prevent any dropouts."

In order to avoid confusion, the department has decided not to change the unique identity number of students even if they change schools in between. "Though the first 11 digits are the school code, this will not change even if the child changes school, because this code would be considered as the one to which the kid was admitted first. Change of school will not create confusion," said Kumar Naik.

This data bank is likely to help the department track students based on constant updating, he said.

Preparations for Hejje Guruthu were started a year ago, with a spend of Rs 17-20 lakh. The project was necessitated to create a data bank on children by giving them a unique ID. This will not duplicate Aadhar numbers. Once every student gets an Aadhar number, we'll use that UID number as a student identity number, but due to delay in the issue of Aadhar numbers, we are forced to create our own identity number for students.

Students studying in private, government, aided, non-aided schools of Karnataka will get a unique identity number

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