Looking at the importance of blockchain technology, Indian education systems will soon be enabled with a new technology where students will get tamper-proof certificates and degrees.
Taking a lead, the Maharashtra State Board of Skill Development (MSBSD) has announced that it will be using the Ethereum blockchain system to provide tamper-proof diploma certificates to students.
The state government wants to launch the world’s largest blockchain technology-powered educational credentialing system for issuing close to one million certificates. To implement this, MSBSD has signed an agreement with LegitDoc, a SaaS-based platform that will use the Ethereum blockchain system.
After this announcement, Maharashtra has joined Malta, Bahrain and Singapore in implementing the Ethereum blockchain in the education system. The partnership will focus on detecting a fool-proof, tamper-proof document with the most secure blockchain technology.
Apart from Maharashtra, other states like Telangana, Karnataka are also mulling to use blockchain technology in their education system.
How will this work?
The company will use Ethereum blockchain to mint diplomas that can’t be tampered with. This is the same blockchain that is being used to mint non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The only reason behind selecting Ether-based blockchain is that it is tamper-proof and with no single authority to control.
Blockchain is currently disrupting many sectors including the education sector; as many educational institutes in India are expected to use the services for awarding certificates and degrees. The service is also expected to be used by several companies that need to verify documents.
Govt developing proof-of-concept
NITI Aayog, an Indian government policy-making body is focusing on developing a proof-of-concept to explore blockchain in critical areas of education.
The government’s think tank has organized a blockchain hackathon in which students from Indian Technology Institutes (IITs) along with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, UC Berkeley College of Engineering and top engineering institutions around the world participated.
After adopting the blockchain system, certificates and degrees of any Indian students can be checked from any part of the world. This will also streamline student services, as higher education institutes across the globe have already started taking benefit of this new technology to make their digital ledgers more secure and transparent.
The central government has also launched a digital locker popularly known as Digi Locker, a decentralized automated network promoted by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. The Indian PM has been asking citizens to use them for storing important documents.
With the usage of blockchain technology, a paper-based system for keeping educational credentials can be replaced and it can help educational systems automate and standardize many of their functions.
Many educationists believe that it will provide greater transparency, enhanced security, improved traceability, increased efficiency and speed of transactions and reduced costs.
Choose the Klever way,
Jagdish Kumar
