To avoid the menace of fake marks cards, the State government has decided to make digital marks cards and educational certificates official for recruitments.
The government has issued an order that recruiting authorities and institutions should consider the marks cards and educational certificates in the National Academic Depository (NAD)-DigiLocker as official during recruitment.
In addition, from the academic year 2023-24, subordinate departments under the Department of Higher Education, public universities, and all educational institutions have been directed to compulsorily store graduation and postgraduation marks sheets, certificates, and other academic documents in digital form on NAD-DigiLocker.
Higher education students have also been advised to register their credits in the ‘Academic Bank of Credits (ABC).’
The Union government has set up NAD, a digital depository of educational awards (certificates), to bring about administrative and educational reforms in the education sector.
Since the launch of NAD, educational institutions, including Central universities, State universities, private universities, Central higher education institutions, school boards, are uploading their educational awards in NAD. Many users are using NAD services through DigiLocker to get their academic awards online.
The UGC has informed all universities, higher educational institutes, and stakeholders concerned to use NAD services through DigiLocker for institutions seeking to verify academic records.
The original documents available on DigiLocker are valid documents as per the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2020. Also, higher education institutions have been asked to accept digital academic documents, as attested documents are available on DigiLocker.
On the other hand, under the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) the Union government has launched the Academic Bank of Credit Scheme (ABC) for higher education students.
ABC is a system in which students accumulate credits earned at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and credits can be transferrable when students shift from the institution.
Budget announcement
The State government announced in the 2023-24 Budget that to avoid the menace of fake marks sheets, steps will be taken to make it mandatory for all higher education students to register with ABC and for recruitment, marks cards, and educational certificates in NAD-DigiLocker.
Although steps have been taken by the State government to store marks cards and other educational documents in NAD-DigiLocker through the Unified University College Management System (UUCMS) portal, no university has uploaded the academic documents of the previous years’ students on DigiLocker. Students are also not aware of the move.
The government has now ordered the storage of all degree and postgraduation marks cards and academic certificates of students of higher educational institutions on NAD-DigiLocker. The students have been told to register and store the credits obtained with ABC compulsorily.
Speaking to The Hindu, Vidyashree, who aspires to join the government service, welcomed the move. “I am working in a private company and applied for a government job and successfully wrote the competitive exam recently. Online applications are being invited for government jobs. All the original documents including the mark sheets should be scanned and uploaded online. Many times, the files are not uploaded due to server and Internet problems. Getting our academic documents through DigiLocker will be more convenient for candidates and recruitment authorities. Even private organisations are asking for digital records these days.”
Lingaraja Gandhi, Vice-Chancellor of Bengaluru City University, called it a good reform. “We have already completed two convocations and uploaded all the educational documents, including marks cards, on DigiLocker. Students and recruiting authorities can use these as per requirement.”
