The Federal Government has announced plans to fully integrate education records with the National Youth Service Corps in a bid to curb certificate forgery, speed up verification, and ensure qualified graduates are not shut out of service and employment opportunities.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja during a meeting with the NYSC Director-General, Brig. Gen. Olakunle Nafiu, and his team.
Speaking at the meeting, Alausa said the reforms align with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and are aimed at closing gaps in the management and authentication of academic qualifications.
“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,” he stated.
According to the minister, the Nigerian Education Repository Data Bank (NERD) is already collecting and verifying university certificates, tracking learners across different levels of education, and providing support to tertiary institutions through help-desk officers.
He added that the proposed Nigerian Education Data Infrastructure will connect records from primary school through tertiary education.
Alausa also revealed that the ministry had digitised all Education Support Services, including certificate verification for both local and foreign applicants. He said discussions were ongoing with NYSC on developing an Application Programming Interface (API) to enable faster data exchange and verification between both bodies.
He noted that administrative lapses and data inconsistencies have in the past prevented some qualified graduates from participating in NYSC and accessing jobs. Issues highlighted include mismatched names, complications for part-time National Diploma holders, and challenges faced by NCE holders seeking admission into HND programmes.
To address these, the ministry will collaborate with NBTE, JAMB, NIMC and other agencies to introduce a national Learner Identification Number and a unified system for recording names across education and identity databases.
The minister further stated that government had intensified its fight against examination malpractice, including question paper leaks, and called for similar measures to be extended to tertiary institutions.
In his remarks, Gen. Nafiu commended the ministry’s digital drive and reaffirmed NYSC’s commitment to the reforms. He said the Corps had been pursuing digitalisation since 2014 and had deployed systems that improved data reliability and corps deployment.
He disclosed that NYSC had complied with the Federal Executive Council’s directive to work with NERD and was ready to deepen the partnership. According to him, the use of QR codes has “virtually eliminated document cloning” within the scheme.