This has become a big issue in the entire Jharkhand state as the state has decided to make the Permanent Education Number (PEN) compulsory when filling examination forms for both Class 10 and Class 12 board exams, and this is posing a challenge to a significant proportion of students. The new rule, which the Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) has introduced, is to be implemented in the 2026 exam period, yet it has been reported that lakhs of students would not be able to meet the requirement in time.
Schools have been directed that no student will be admitted to fill the exam form without a valid PEN, and the institutions should also present their U-DISE Plus code. Although the rule was implemented to simplify the education database of the state, eliminate the fake or unnecessary registration and enhance the transparency, it has elicited a lot of panic among the students, parents, and school administrations.
Reports in the area suggest that close to 20-30 per cent of students lack a valid PEN because of either the absence of documentation or discrepancies in records. Students with rural and remote backgrounds have problems with differences in names, date of birth, parental information within their Aadhaar cards, birth certificates and school records. Such discrepancies have cost thousands of people the opportunity to get PEN approval, which threatens their eligibility to take exams.
As the deadline to submit the form is nearing, schools are pressured to correct the mistakes and submit accurate information. The number of cases that will be left unsolved is, however, likely to be many based on the administration backlog and delay in verification processes. Consequently, many students who have been studying all year round will be denied the opportunity to take their important Class 10 or Class 12 board exams.
The teachers and parents have raised concerns that the rule, though well-intended, has been introduced without proper preparation, and the ground realities of documentation in most regions of the state have not been taken into account. Education activists believe that the policy may create more inequalities, with students with less economically advantaged being over-represented in it, as they already struggle to keep proper records.
Instead, the JAC believes that the PEN system will eventually be beneficial to the students in that a single academic identity over the long term will be formed, and the errors in administration will be minimized in the future. The authorities have pointed out that schools are to take the initiative to make sure that the deadline is met before the last day.
With the unfolding situation, stakeholders are pressuring the state education department to give more deadlines, streamline the process of verification, or offer some temporary relaxations to ensure that no student loses an academic year because of a paperwork problem. The next few weeks will be very critical to the issue of whether the mandatory PEN rule will be a reform or a stalling point for students in Jharkhand.
