APAAR ID and ABC ID — 2026 parent and student guide

• APAAR ID — a permanent 12-digit-style academic account for every student, built on DigiLocker and mapped to the institution's UDISE+/PEN identifier. By the Ministry's own counters, over 33 crore IDs have been created across 15,000-plus institutions, with academic records flowing into them.
• ABC ID — the Academic Bank of Credits at abc.gov.in, the credit ledger under the National Education Policy: every course you complete deposits credits into your ABC account, which institutions can verify and count toward degrees, transfers and multiple exits.
• How they connect — APAAR is the identity; ABC is the account that identity opens. One student, one APAAR, one credit ledger for life.
• Where it is heading — CBSE has made APAAR part of Class IX and XI board registration from the 2026-27 session: our note on the CBSE mandate.

1. Your school or college initiates the process through its academic records, against the student's PEN.
2. The student (or parent, for minors) authenticates on DigiLocker with Aadhaar OTP — the school cannot and should not do this step for you.
3. A consent screen appears; after the Supreme Court's 25 July 2026 order in *Abhishek Baxi v. Union of India*, that form must carry an express opt-out/refuse option, and student data cannot be shared with third parties except as law allows — with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 governing processing. See also is APAAR mandatory — consent and refusal explained.
4. The ID issues; documents and credits start linking automatically as institutions push records.

• You can refuse — the form must let you, and the Court's order applies across India.
• No third-party or private sharing of the student's data is permitted beyond what a law requires.
• Asking a parent to “just give the OTP” at a school desk without showing the consent screen is not proper process — ask to see it.
• Never share Aadhaar OTP with any agent or “helper” offering to make the ID for a fee. The official route costs nothing: apaar.education.gov.in.

1. Name, date of birth or gender mismatch is almost always a source-record error — the school's UDISE+/PEN entry or the enrollment register.
2. Get the school to correct the source record first; APAAR mirrors the source, so a duplicate ID will carry the same error twice.
3. Escalate at the institution; the APAAR helpline 1800-890-3511 and the DigiLocker grievance route take it further.
4. Never create a second APAAR to “start clean” — records collide, and unlinking a duplicate is far harder than fixing one field.

• The APAAR acknowledgement or ID note.
• Screenshots of the consent screen you accepted (or refused).
• The school's written confirmation of any correction request.
• Your DigiLocker credentials — recovery of the account runs through it.

A public-authority angle exists for government institutions — a written complaint to the school authority, then the education department, and where a public authority holds the record, an RTI for the file status and action taken:

1. Status of my ward's APAAR creation request dated ___ as on today.
2. The source record relied on for name/date of birth, and the date
   it was last corrected.
3. Reasons for the mismatch flagged on [date].
4. The officer responsible for UDISE+/PEN data at the institution.
5. The timeline the department commits to for correcting the record.

The AI RTI Drafter prepares the application.

Institutions increasingly require it for board registration and credit transfer; the consent itself must offer refusal per the Supreme Court's July 2026 order — the two things are not in contradiction, and the school must show you the option.

The account is designed to be lifelong; the practical route is refusing consent at creation. Post-creation, approach the institution and the helpline for deactivation.

No — it is an academic identity built alongside Aadhaar authentication, not a substitute.

Point them to the amended consent form. If they still refuse, the helpline and the department's grievance cell are the escalations.

No — DigiLocker is the storage and authentication layer; APAAR is the academic account built on top of it. You keep your DigiLocker credentials, and the school cannot operate either for you.

Yes — each student gets one APAAR against their own PEN and Aadhaar. One child, one ID; never a second ID for the same child.

• CBSE APAAR board registration mandate
• APAAR consent and opt-out
• FYUGP exit options — certificate, diploma, degree
• Scholarship and marksheet error RTI
• The RTI Playbook

Last reviewed: 27 August 2026.