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The Board of Secondary Education, Uttar Pradesh (UP Board), has taken a significant step to curb discrepancies and fraud related to date-of-birth corrections in High School mark-cum-certificates. According to an official release issued by the Board, it has now become mandatory to record authentic proof of date of birth at the time of admission to primary and upper primary classes.

Why were these directives regarding date of birth issued?
The UP Board’s regional offices and its Prayagraj headquarters were consistently receiving cases concerning the correction of students' dates of birth. Investigations revealed the following issues:

Admission below the minimum age: In many instances, children were admitted to primary classes at an age lower than the minimum prescribed by the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009.
Failure to cite the original document: When issuing a Transfer Certificate (TC), headmasters often failed to mention the original record upon which the child's date of birth was initially registered.
Suspicion and fraud: The absence of a reference to the original source document cast serious doubt on the authenticity of the records, subsequently forcing students and parents to make repeated visits to the Board for corrections.

The Council has highlighted numerous cases where a child's age at the time of admission was found to be below the threshold set by the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. Furthermore, in many instances, headmasters failed to cite the specific document used to verify and record the child's date of birth.

What is the required age for admission to Class 1?

Under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, the age for admission to Class 1 is set at six years. Therefore, it is essential to record the student's age and date of birth based on authentic documentation at the time of their initial school admission.

If a birth certificate is unavailable, which documents can be used to record the date of birth? Section 14 of the Act and Rule 9 of the 2011 Rules mandate the use of a birth certificate as the basis for recording the date of birth. If a birth certificate is unavailable, the child's age may be verified based on any one of the prescribed alternative documents. These include:

**Accepted Records/Documents** | **Details**
Hospital or ANM register records | Records issued by a hospital or an Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM)
Anganwadi records | Registered records of the Child Development Project (ICDS)
Village register records | Birth and death registers maintained by the Gram Panchayat
Guardian's affidavit | An affidavit regarding the child's age submitted by the parents or guardian

**What must schools do at the time of initial admission?**
The Council has clarified that at the time of a student's initial admission to the school, it must be ensured that their date of birth is recorded based on one of the aforementioned prescribed documents.

The objective is to maintain a clear primary record of the student's date of birth, thereby avoiding complications later regarding requests for date-of-birth corrections in the High School certificate-cum-marksheet.

The Council requires schools to cite the specific record used as the basis for entering the student's date of birth. This will facilitate the verification of the original proof in the event of any future issues concerning the date of birth.

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