By Elvira Jordan
The Federal Government is working with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to deepen the digital integration of education records and accelerate the verification of academic qualifications in a move aimed at tackling certificate racketeering and preventing genuine graduates from being denied opportunities.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Tuesday when the Director-General of the NYSC, Brig. Gen. Olakunle Nafiu, led a delegation of the Corps to the ministry in Abuja.
Alausa said the digital reforms being implemented under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda were designed to close loopholes in the management and verification of educational records and make qualification authentication more efficient across the education system.
“The digital transformation of Nigeria’s education system under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda is strengthening the integrity of academic qualifications, tackling certificate racketeering and ensuring that genuine students and graduates are not disadvantaged,” the minister said.
He explained that the Nigerian Education Repository Data Bank was collecting and verifying university certificates, tracking learners across the education system and providing support to tertiary institutions through help-desk officers.
According to him, the Nigerian Education Data Infrastructure would also connect records across different stages of a learner’s educational journey.
Alausa said the ministry had further digitised its Education Support Services end-to-end, including certificate verification and processes involving foreign applicants.
He disclosed that discussions were ongoing with the NYSC on an application programming interface that would facilitate faster verification and the seamless exchange of relevant data between the two institutions.
The minister said the proposed digital integration would help address administrative and data-related challenges that have affected some qualified graduates seeking to participate fully in the national service scheme and the labour market.
He identified discrepancies in names, issues involving graduates of part-time National Diploma programmes and the admission of National Certificate in Education holders into Higher National Diploma programmes among the challenges requiring urgent attention.
Alausa said the ministry would collaborate with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and other stakeholders to develop lasting solutions to the challenges.
He said the proposed reforms would include the introduction of a national Learner Identification Number and a consistent framework for recording and sequencing names across government education and identity databases.
According to the minister, establishing accurate identity records from the beginning of a learner’s educational journey would help reduce discrepancies that could later affect graduates.
Alausa also said the government had strengthened measures against examination malpractice, including the leakage of examination questions, stressing the need to sustain and extend the progress recorded in that area to tertiary institutions.
