The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has disclosed that the digital transformation of Nigeria’s education system is strengthening the integrity of academic qualifications and tackling certificate racketeering.

Alausa, who stated this during a meeting with the Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig.-Gen. Olakunle Nafiu, who led a delegation of the Corps to the ministry, said the reforms would also ensure that genuine students and graduates were not disadvantaged in accessing national service and employment opportunities.

According to him, the digital reforms are designed to close gaps in the management and verification of educational records, making it easier to identify learners and authenticate qualifications across the education system.

“We are building systems that will protect the integrity of Nigeria’s education system and ensure that genuine students and graduates are not disadvantaged,” he said.

Alausa commended the NYSC leadership for embracing technology and supporting efforts to strengthen the credibility of education records.

He said closer integration between the ministry and NYSC would improve verification, reduce opportunities for fraud and facilitate seamless exchange of credible learner and graduate data.

The minister explained that the Nigerian Education Repository Data Bank (NERD), was collecting and verifying university certificates, tracking learners across the education system and supporting tertiary institutions through help-desk officers.

He added that the Nigerian Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI), would link records across different stages of a learner’s educational journey.

The minister further disclosed that the ministry had digitised its end-to-end education support system, including certificate verification and processes involving foreign applicants.

He said discussions were also underway with NYSC on an Application Programming Interface (API), to facilitate faster and seamless verification and exchange of relevant data.

According to him, the reforms will address administrative and data-related challenges that have prevented some qualified graduates from fully participating in national service and the labour market.

He identified discrepancies in names, issues affecting graduates of part-time National Diploma programmes and the admission of National Certificate in Education (NCE), holders into Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes as some of the challenges requiring attention.

“We will engage 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 these challenges,” Alausa stated.

He said the solutions would include a national Learner Identification Number (LIN), and a consistent national framework for recording and sequencing names across government education and identity databases.

The minister said this would also ensure that accurate and consistent identity records were established from the beginning of a learner’s educational journey.

He also said the government had strengthened measures to curb examination malpractice, including the leakage of examination questions.

The minister stressed the need to sustain the gains and extend such measures to tertiary institutions.

He assured that the government would continue to confront corruption and systemic weaknesses through technology, credible data and stronger institutional collaboration, while protecting the integrity of Nigeria’s education system.

Speaking during the meeting, Nafiu commended the minister for the reforms and pledged the corps’ continued support for the digital transformation of the education sector.

He said NYSC had pursued digitalisation since 2014, and developed systems that provided reliable information for corps members and their deployment.

He said the agency had complied with the Federal Executive Council’s directive on collaboration with NERD and was ready to deepen its partnership with the ministry.

He highlighted the impact of technology on the integrity of the agency’s operations, noting that the introduction of QR codes had virtually eliminated document cloning within NYSC.

Nafiu also highlighted ongoing efforts to resolve challenges affecting graduates of part-time National Diploma programmes, HND mobilisation and the admission of NCE holders into HND programmes.

He said discussions with the new JAMB Registrar, Prof. Segun Aina, had led to an understanding to create a window for graduates affected by name discrepancies to regularise their records in collaboration with NIMC.

The NYSC boss stressed that a consistent national framework for recording and sequencing names across government education and identity databases, supported by a unique LIN would prevent similar difficulties in the future.