Tamil Nadu School Education department directs schools to open bank accounts for all students

CHENNAI: For an initiative of opening bank accounts for students studying in Tamil Nadu schools, the Directorate of School Education (DSE) has recently signed an MoU with the Department of Posts (DOP).

The bank accounts will be opened for students studying in all government, aided and private schools. Also, DSE has begun an initiative of procuring Aadhar cards for students. And, the respective schools will be linking the bank account with the Aadhar card post its generation.

The motive of the education department is to open bank accounts to ensure timely disbursement to the beneficiary students in the method of Direct Beneficiary Transfer (DBT).

Meanwhile, DSE has listed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), where the bank accounts will be opened in two stages as per the age of the students. In the first level, new bank accounts will be opened for children between ages of 5 and 10. And, for young students, the bank account will be opened as a joint account with a parent/guardian.

But, in the joint account, the Aadhar card number of parents cannot be added, hence requiring to use the Aadhar card number of the child.

Subsequently, for opening the bank of students above 10 years, details like Aadhaar card number, identity card and passport size photograph are required.

Also, schools have been told to ensure that principals upload the bank account number to the Education Management Information System (EMIS), a platform immediately after the account is opened.