The Federal Government and the National Youth Service Corps are moving to deepen the digital integration of education records to tackle certificate fraud and improve the verification of academic qualifications.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Tuesday during a meeting with the NYSC Director-General, Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu, in Abuja.
Alausa says the digital reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda are designed to close loopholes in the management of educational records and make it easier to authenticate qualifications across the country.
He says the Nigerian Education Repository Data Bank is collecting and verifying university certificates, while the Nigerian Education Data Infrastructure is being developed to link records throughout a learner’s educational journey.
The minister also says discussions are ongoing with the NYSC on an application programming interface that will allow faster verification and seamless exchange of relevant data between both institutions.
He identifies discrepancies in names, issues involving graduates of part-time National Diploma programmes and the admission of NCE holders into HND programmes as some of the challenges requiring urgent attention.
Alausa says the ministry will work with agencies including the National Board for Technical Education, JAMB and the National Identity Management Commission to develop lasting solutions.
The proposed measures include introducing a national Learner Identification Number and a standard system for recording names across government education and identity databases.
The government has also strengthened measures against examination malpractice, including the leakage of examination questions.
The move comes amid renewed efforts to prevent fraudulent credentials from being used for employment and NYSC mobilisation.
The NYSC Director-General, Nafiu, says the Corps is ready to deepen its partnership with the ministry, adding that digitalisation has strengthened its operations.
He says the introduction of QR codes has virtually eliminated document cloning within the NYSC.