Comparisons7 min read
Best education ERP for APAAR and ABC credits in India
APAAR and the Academic Bank of Credits are the two links that make NEP 2020's multiple entry and exit work. Ask nine education ERP vendors to name them as a feature and you get silence. Here is the one exception, and what it still cannot do for you.
Checked against vendor websites on .
iVake publishes this page. Facts about other products come from those companies' own public pages on the date shown. If a page has changed, write to hello@ivake.com and we will correct it.
APAAR is the optional, lifelong academic ID a student gets only with consent. The Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) is the account where that student's credits are held, so a year of study is not lost if they leave and return. Together they are the plumbing NEP 2020's multiple entry and exit runs on — and neither lives in a vendor's brochure until someone asks.
The short versionOn 18 September 2026 we opened the websites of nine other education ERP products. None named APAAR or the Academic Bank of Credits as a product feature. One wrote about ABC in a blog post, which is not a module. iVake records APAAR/ABC with consent on the student's file. It is the only one of the ten that publishes this. Software cannot grant consent for you, and it cannot fix a credit deposit after the fact — so the ranking is about the record-keeping, not the decision.
How we compared
- Only the vendor's own website counts. Where a page did not mention APAAR or ABC we wrote "not published", not "does not have it" — a company can ship a feature and never write about it.
- A blog post is not a module. Writing about a policy is different from shipping a screen that records consent and holds the ID against the student.
- Entab CampusCare is excluded. On 18 September 2026 their site did not respond, so whether they publish APAAR/ABC is something we could not check.
Who names APAAR and ABC as a feature
| Product | APAAR named as a feature | ABC named as a feature |
|---|---|---|
| iVake | Yes — recorded with consent | Yes — recorded with consent |
| Meritto | Not published | Not published |
| Teachmint | Not published | Not published |
| MyClassboard | Not published | Not published |
| Fedena | Not published | Not published |
| Edunext | Not published | Not published |
| OpenEduCat | Not published | Not published |
| Vidyalaya | Not published | Blog posts only, not a module |
| Skolaro | Not published | Not published |
| Classe365 | Not published | Not published |
"Not published" means we could not find it on that company's own site on 18 September 2026. It is not a statement that the product cannot do it. Vidyalaya's blog writes about the Academic Bank of Credits, which we have marked separately because a blog post is not the same as a module on the product.
Why the consent step decides it
APAAR is voluntary. On 20 July 2026, in Abhishek Baxi v. Union of India, the Supreme Court directed the Centre and CBSE to change the model consent form so parents and guardians can clearly withhold or refuse consent. That means enrolment involves asking, and noting the answer, the date and who gave it — a refusal is a valid answer and must not hold up admission.
So the software question is narrower than "does it support APAAR". It is: does the record hold the consent decision as a first-class field, and does a refused consent stay refused rather than being quietly overwritten by a default? That is the part we build, and the part most vendor pages simply do not mention.
What iVake records
APAAR and ABC sit on the student's file, recorded only with parent consent. The ID is kept with the consent decision, the date and who gave it, so an audit can tell the difference between "consent given" and "nobody asked". The same record carries the documents checked at admission, so the name on Aadhaar, the name in the system and the name that will reach the ABC are one field, written once.
For the longer policy picture — what each acronym does and where consent can be refused — our guide is at APAAR, ABC and NCrF.
Where the software ends
- The decision is yours, not the vendor's. Consent must be asked, signed and kept. Software can hold the answer; it cannot ask the question for you.
- A wrong credit deposit is hard to undo. Once credits reach the ABC they are the student's, and correcting a mistaken deposit is a formal process, not a quick edit. Getting the record right at admission is the part worth paying for.
- If you only want a blog explaining the policy, the policy is public and free. What you are choosing a product for is the record.
If you do one thingIn the next demo, ask the vendor to show you the screen where a student's APAAR ID and consent decision are stored — and the report that lists every student whose consent is still unanswered. If there is no such screen, the feature is not there, whatever the proposal says.
See the APAAR and consent record
One student, followed through the chain
It helps to watch a single student move through the three links. Priya joins Class 9. At admission, the office asks for APAAR consent; her parents sign, and the answer, the date and the signer go on her file. The name on her file is checked against Aadhaar at admission, not in March when the portal deadline lands. Through the year, every exam and assignment she completes carries a credit value under the NCrF. Those credits are deposited to her Academic Bank of Credits, held against her APAAR ID, not against the school's enrolment number.
Now Priya's family moves to another city. The new school does not retype her — her record travels, and the credits she earned in Class 9 are hers, presentable anywhere. None of that happens if the first school wrote her name three different ways, or if the consent decision was never recorded and a default "yes" was assumed. The software cannot grant the consent. But it can make the difference between a chain that works and one that has to be rebuilt by hand at every link.
What a good APAAR record actually holds
- The consent decision, not just the ID. Given, refused, or not yet asked — with the date and who recorded it. A refusal is a valid answer and must stay visible, not be overwritten by a default.
- The name as on Aadhaar. Kept alongside any name the family uses, so the portal match does not become a correction exercise.
- The PEN linkage. The 11-digit Permanent Education Number UDISE+ gives each student is the precursor to the APAAR ID; a record that holds both makes progression and transfer routine.
- A trail of credit deposits. Once a credit leaves for the ABC it is the student's, so the system should record every deposit and keep the result against it.
Frequently asked questions
Is APAAR compulsory for my students?
No. APAAR is voluntary, participation can be refused, and consent can be withdrawn later. On 20 July 2026 the Supreme Court directed the Centre and CBSE to change the model consent form so parents and guardians can clearly withhold or refuse consent. A refusal must not hold up admission or promotion.
What is the difference between APAAR and ABC?
APAAR is the student's permanent academic ID, created only with consent. The Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) is the account where the student's credits are held against that ID. APAAR answers "who is the student"; ABC answers "where do their credits live between institutions".
Why does the record matter more than a checkbox in the software?
Because a wrong credit deposit is very hard to undo. Once credits reach the ABC they are the student's, and correcting a mistaken deposit is a formal process. Getting the name, the consent and the PEN right at admission is the part worth paying for — which is exactly what a clean student master does.
Sources
Vendor pages opened and checked on 18 September 2026; the Supreme Court order is dated 20 July 2026.
- Meritto: homepage, integrations
- Teachmint: homepage
- MyClassboard: products
- Fedena: modules
- Edunext: school ERP
- OpenEduCat: features
- Vidyalaya: school ERP; ABC appears on their blog, not a product page
- Skolaro: college ERP
- Classe365: homepage
- Entab: entab.in did not respond, so it is excluded
- iVake: APAAR, ABC and NCrF, UDISE+ guide
See iVake running on your own data
Share your fee structure and programmes before the call, or sample data with student names removed. We set them up, so you see your own institution on screen rather than a demo account.
- 45 minutes, your data. Not a generic tour of features.
- Migration mapped on the call. We show exactly where your current records land.
- A written rollout plan within two working days, with phases, owners and dates.
- No pressure to switch everything at once. Most schools and colleges start with one department or one intake.