Teachers, parents wary of uploading students' personal details on govt portal

The personal data and contact details of the students sought by the Union ministry of education, has not been welcomed by principals and parents.

According to an official, "To ensure there is no duplicity in students' records, the Union ministry of education has asked all private, government and aided schools to update student database on the centralised portal Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+)."

The UDISE+ portal is collecting students' data from all the schools through a survey to use it as a parameter for policy making, distribution of grants (for government schools) and performance indicator for different national and international-level surveys, the official added.

This data includes extremely personal information regarding students, the principals said.

The principal of a prominent English medium school sought consent from parents before sharing any such personal information with a third party.

In a bulk message sent to parents, the principal said the DIOS (district inspector of schools) has requested all schools in the district to submit data for each student on the UDISE+ Plus (Unified District Information System for Education Plus) portal.

"This data includes extremely personal information regarding our students, parents' names, permanent address, contact numbers, personal email IDs Aadhaar numbers, various medical tests/ mental health details of our girls and other such information. Hence, parents' consent is a must," said the principal of an all-girls' school.

The parent of a student in a co-educational school said, "It is not right to ask for personal details. I hope parents of all boys and girls say no to the above form."

The schools have asked parents to submit the form before 6 p.m. on Friday (July 28). The school shared a link with the parents to fill the form. It is mandatory for all parents to fill the form, the principal said in her message to all the parents.

Anil Agarwal, president of Unaided Private Schools Association, UP, said, "We really do not know for what purpose personal details need to be uploaded on the government portal. We tried to reach out to a number of government officials. Nobody has an answer to it."

While it is mandatory to update information related to the schools' infrastructure, teachers, enrollments, etc., the new module for students was introduced from this session.

Schools are required to submit information regarding every individual student, including their subjects, educational performance, social demographics and body mass index, along with the strengths and weaknesses of the student, the official said.