The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has made it mandatory to furnish Aadhaar number or any other valid identification card for students, who will be writing their Class 10 and 12 board exams in 2018.

The decision comes in the wake of back-to-back topper scams where an ‘undeserving’ Ruby Rai became the Arts topper in 2016, and 42-year-old Ganesh Kumar, who faked his name and age, topped in 2017 without having proper knowledge of the subjects.

“Identification numbers will put a check on manipulation of name or age or other personal details by the examinees,” Anand Kishor, BSEB chairman, said. He added, “From 2019 onwards, we will make Aadhaar compulsory for all students appearing for the Board exams. Aadhaar will also be mentioned on the admit card of the examinee and other id proofs will not be considered valid.”

BSEB officials said aspiring examinees have been asked to provide their Aadhaar number at the time of registration, which is currently underway. They said identification number will also reduce spelling mistakes in names and the system is already in place for some national level competitive exams.

The BSEB officials have held meetings with their counterparts in other states and national boards, and will be adopting some of their best practices as a part of implementing examination and evaluation related reforms to streamline Bihar Board.

“We are in the process of framing a roadmap that is more transparent, efficient and innovative, and examination reforms will get a whole new dimension. The entire effort is being made to develop a better education system,” a senior BSEB official said, and added, “We will also be making largescale use of technology to help in the exam and evaluation process.”

The BSEB has been in the eye of the storm over its “faulty” examination and evaluation system, mass-scale cheating in Matriculation exams and involvement of top officials in financial irregularities in the Board, that have surfaced in the last few years.