Board exams are always a stressful time for students as well as parents. While children were busy covering the syllabus and projects, parents had to stress out with that extra paperwork. That’s why the recent update from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has come as a huge relief many families in India.

Earlier APAAR ID was compulsory for students appearing for the 2025 board exams. However CBSE removing the mandate has relieved the stress and allowed the parents and students to just focus on the exams.

What is APAAR ID?

APAAR stands for Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry. You can think of it as a digital identity card for students. The government introduced it under the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) to make education records smoother and easier to manage.

With an APAAR ID, every student gets a unique number that links to their learning records. It works like a DigiLocker for academics. It stores report cards, certificates and other achievements. Children can access everything in one place.

The goal is to make education records portable and safe, so students can easily access them when applying for higher education or scholarships.

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Why Did CBSE Make It Compulsory?

Initially, CBSE had made the APAAR ID mandatory for students while submitting the List of Candidates (LOC) for board exams. The LOC is basically the official list of schools sent to CBSE, confirming which students will be appearing for the board exams.

By making APAAR ID compulsory, the idea was to bring all student data into one national system and avoid duplication or errors. But as the deadline approached, students started facing challenges.

What Were The Challenges With APAAR ID

Technical Issues

Many schools struggled with the portal and uploading documents.

Time Pressure

Students were already busy preparing for exams, and parents had to run around arranging documents for APAAR.

Connectivity Problems

In rural areas, slow internet made it hard to generate IDs.

No More Mandatory APAAR for Now

Listening to these concerns, CBSE announced a partial relaxation. Students can still submit exam forms even without an APAAR ID.

This doesn’t mean the APAAR system is gone. It just means students won’t be stopped from appearing for exams if they haven’t created one yet. Schools are encouraged to continue registering students for APAAR IDs.

Why Create APAAR ID

Though it is no longer mandatory, it’s still a good idea to create an APAAR ID when possible.

Eventually, APAAR will become the norm for academic records.

Certificates and results will be safely stored online.

Many future schemes may require APAAR ID.

For now, students can focus on what matters most. Parents can breathe a little easier as they have to fill out one fewer form in the process of their children’s board exams.