Glossary

School management glossary

Plain-language explanations of the terms you meet when running a school in India.

A

APAAR ID

Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry — a lifelong academic ID for students, generated with parental consent.

B

Bloom's Taxonomy

A classification of thinking skills — remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate, create — used to design questions and learning outcomes.

C

CO-PO Attainment

A measure of how well students achieved course outcomes (COs), rolled up into programme outcomes (POs) through a mapping.

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation

An approach to assessment that combines regular formative assessments with term exams and covers co-scholastic areas, not just marks.

F

Fee Blocking

A school rule that holds an action — such as a hall ticket, report card or TC — for students with unpaid fees, with an authorised override.

Fee Concession

A reduction in fees for a student, such as a sibling, staff-ward, merit or need-based concession, usually approved by the management.

Fee Head

A single component of school fees, such as tuition, admission, annual charges, exam fee or transport, each linked to its own accounting ledger.

Fee Structure

The set of fee heads, amounts, instalments and due dates that applies to a group of students — for example Class 6, new students, general category.

H

Holistic Progress Card

A report card format that describes a child's development across academic, social, emotional and physical areas, not only marks.

L

Late Fee

An extra charge applied when a fee instalment is paid after its due date, usually after some grace days and up to a cap.

List of Candidates (LOC)

The list a school submits to its board with details of students appearing in the Class X or XII board examinations.

N

NEP 2020

India's National Education Policy 2020, which emphasises competency-based learning, holistic assessment and flexible curricula.

P

Parent Portal

A secure website or app where parents see their child's attendance, fees, notices, timetable and report cards, and pay fees online.

Payment Gateway

A service that lets parents pay online by UPI, card or net-banking and settles the money into the school's bank account.

PEN (Permanent Education Number)

A unique student identifier generated through UDISE+ that stays with a student across schools.

Q

Question Paper Blueprint

A plan for a question paper showing how marks are distributed across units, question types, difficulty and Bloom levels.

R

RFID Attendance

Recording attendance when students or staff tap an RFID card on a reader at the gate or classroom.

Role-based Access Control

Giving each user permissions according to their role, and limiting the data they can see — for example teachers to their own sections.

RTE Admission

Admission under the Right to Education Act's provision reserving seats in private schools for children from economically weaker and disadvantaged groups.

S

School ERP

Software that runs every office of a school — admissions, students, attendance, exams, fees, accounts, HR and more — on one shared set of data.

Student Information System (SIS)

The part of a school system that holds each student's permanent record: personal details, family, documents, enrolment history, transfers and TC.

T

Tally Integration

Exchanging accounting data between school software and Tally Prime, usually through XML files of ledgers and vouchers.

Transfer Certificate (TC)

The certificate a school issues when a student leaves, confirming their details, class and conduct, needed for admission elsewhere.

U

UDISE+

Unified District Information System for Education Plus — the national system where every school in India submits school-level and student-level data each year.