After linking Aadhaar to mid-day meal schemes, the central government is planning to use the 12-digit unique ID to map out-of-school children and track students who either drop out or move to new locations, according to a report in The Economic Times.

A sub-committee of Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), the apex advisory body on education in the country, recommended the use of Aadhaar biometrics to track children's education in the country in a meeting held on Monday.

The CABE recommendated all state education departments to collect information about the age and education of the children at the district level and link it with their verified Aadhaar numbers.

The CABE includes all state education departments, Union ministries of Women and Child Development, Social Justice and Empowerment and Ministry of Minority Affairs.

The recommendation stated that the state education department will be responsible for allocating Aadhaar numbers to children in government schools and district collectors will have to ensure that children who are not in school are enrolled in Aadhaar too. The initiative will require a collaboration of different government bodies including panchayats and local administrative units.

Earlier, the central government made it compulsory to link Aadhaar numbers to mid-day meals served in schools to check pilferage and increase the scheme's efficacy.

States like Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Manipur have reported nearly 2,00,000 ghost students in the mid-day meal scheme, said the report.

While the linking has been made mandatory, students in states like West Bengal are yet to link their Aadhaar number to the scheme.

Other recommendations include an introduction of pre-primary education in all government schools as well as provide incentives to parents from marginalised communities across all states, similar to an initiative run by the Haryana government.