What Details Go on a School ID Card?

Most school ID cards in India are printed in CR80 size. That is 85.60 x 53.98 mm, the same size as an ATM card. The size comes from the ISO/IEC 7810 standard. It is a small space. So the front should carry only what a person needs to identify the child at a glance.

The photo matters most. Follow the passport photo standard: a colour photo, plain white background, full face looking straight at the camera, eyes open, no shadows. Passport Seva guidelines say the face should fill 80 to 85 percent of the photo. Use the same rule for ID cards. Then every card in the school will look clean and uniform.

• School name and logo, usually at the top
• Student's full name, spelled exactly as in school records
• Class and section
• Roll number or GR number
• Date of birth
• A recent colour photo
• Academic session or year of validity
• Principal's signature

The front identifies the student. The back protects the student. Think of the back as the emergency side. If a child is lost, or hurt, or the card itself is lost, the back side should tell a stranger exactly what to do.

Some schools keep the back blank to save cost. Printing both sides costs a little more. But a card with a blank back does only half its job.

• Home address
• Parent or guardian name
• Parent mobile number, checked twice for mistakes
• Blood group
• School address and phone number
• A short line such as: If found, please return this card to the school
• Bus route or stop name, if the school runs transport

APAAR ID. We know of no rule that requires the APAAR ID on the student ID card. It is a long number, and long numbers eat space on a small card. Our advice is to keep APAAR in the school records. Print it on the card only if your management has decided to.

UDISE code. This belongs to the school, not the student. A UDISE+ code is allotted to a recognized school by the Central Government on the recommendation of the state. Some schools print it in small text near the school name. It is optional, but it quietly shows the school is recognized.

House colour and admission number are fine if you have space. Aadhaar is not. Leave Aadhaar off the card. It is a sensitive number. If the card is lost, that number should not fall into a stranger's hands.

Staff cards use the same base fields as student cards and add a few more. Drivers, conductors, peons and kitchen staff need cards too, not just teachers. Parents should be able to check who is picking children up or moving inside the campus.

• Designation, for example Principal, Teacher, Clerk, Driver
• Employee ID or staff number
• Department or subject
• Blood group and an emergency contact, same as students
• A validity date, since staff cards are not tied to one session

Old photos. A child's face changes fast. A photo from an earlier session no longer matches the child, so the card stops doing its job. The card itself also wears out. One ID card supplier, ID Edge, says standard PVC cards usually need replacement every two years. Whenever you reprint, collect fresh photos.

Bad photos. Faces cropped out of group photos, shadows, side poses, caps. If the photo does not follow the passport style rules above, the card looks bad and does not work well at the gate.

Missing blood group and missing emergency number. These cost nothing extra to print. A card without a parent mobile or a school phone number cannot help a lost child.

No session or year on the card. Old cards and new cards then look identical, and the gate staff cannot tell them apart.

Name spelling that does not match school records. This matters most for senior students. CBSE asks board exam candidates to carry the admit card and the school identity card. So the name on the card must match the school records exactly.

Prepare one Excel sheet with these columns, and the printing goes smoothly no matter who prints for you.

This is the same list we ask schools for at Quick ID Card. Schools send us the Excel sheet and photos, and finished cards reach them in about one week.

• Student name, class, section, roll or GR number, date of birth
• Blood group
• Home address
• Parent or guardian name and mobile number
• Bus route, if the school runs transport
• One fresh colour photo per student, passport style
• School logo file and a scan of the principal's signature