There have been times when students cried in horror after losing or misplacing their valuable educational degrees for some unknown reasons. However, they can breathe a sigh of relief now, as all the painstaking shuttling between college and university to obtain degrees will be taken care by a newly passed legislation passed in the parliament recently.
The Union Cabinet on Tuesday gave a nod to the National Academic Depository (NAD) Bill 2011 proposed by the ministry of human resource development (HRD). As per the bill, the government will maintain in a D-MAT format a national database of schools, colleges, and universities, which could be accessed by students and the boards anytime and anywhere via web. The results of all major examinations, starting from standard 10 till the university level, will be stored electronically under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The NAD will have the power to authenticate and reissue certificates too on request. Direct linkages to the depository will be allotted to school boards, universities and certificate-issuing institutions.

The initiative is primarily meant to help those students who have lost their certificates for some reasons years after passing the examinations, to procure duplicate ones without any hassle.  Students can also keep a track of their degrees on the web. The database would also help deal with ever-rising concerns of forged certificates since it will facilitate online verification.

“Few days back a student of our college, who passed out in the year 1992 and is now working with an IT company, requested us to reissue his certificates, Since, he passed out way back in the nineties, it was difficult for us to find his certificates. So, we had to tell him to contact the university. I know it will be quite a hassle for him to go all the way to the university, taking time off from his busy work schedule, to get a certificate that belongs to him. I hope that the plans of the government materialize, as it will make life much more simpler for students as well as college authorities,” said Jagdish Chinchore, vice-principal, Modern College, Pune.

Ujwala Patil, chairperson of the state board said, “It is expected that the government will implement this technology in the next academic year. But it will certainly take a few years for the entire system to work properly.”

Students also believe that this bill will take some tension off their mind. Ishaani Gupta, a senior secondary student in Pune, said, “Keeping certificates secure can prove to be quite a tedious job. We have to get them laminated in order to keep them damage free. All that work won’t be required after we can get our degrees online. It is high-time that our education system gets a little progressive and brings in new modes of functioning for the betterment of student’s future.”

- Siddhartha Laik