Will linking aadhaar to educational certificates have any impact?

The recent government-drive to link the Aadhaar number to degrees and certificates is projected to make the screening process faster, easier, and more accurate. The system of linking the Aadhaar card to educational degrees is still in progress, but once accomplished this information will be made available to employers and verifiers via the NCS (NationalCareer Service) portal. Similar to an educational information repository, the government plans to create a database which will have a list of all the fake universities and boards. These initiatives will go a long way in ensuring more transparency in the education sector and minimise the incidence of fraudulent candidates.

Fake education certificates are commonly produced by fake institutions and used by students in India. Every year employers and background screening companies come across resumes with embellished education qualifications supported by false degrees. Our latest in-house research report showed that six per cent of job seekers had forged educational qualifications and degrees. If we consider the same figure in proportion to our nation’s population, the results would be shocking. Such candidates, if not verified, not only threaten a firm’s credibility and result in a loss of talent, but also give way to fraudulent activity during employment. To mitigate the risks of bad hires and frauds, organisations are adopting strict background screening practices.

While background screening is known to minimise fraudulent risks, the campaigns of linking the Aadhaar card to educational certificates and bank accounts will add accuracy to the process.

Aadhaar-linking would also be helpful in tracking students’ mobility by creating an electronic registry and could be utilised while dematerialising (or putting in electronic form) academic certificates as was planned by the previous government.

The verification process is certainly not easy considering the gravity of the situation- the number of students, employees, and educational institutions in the nation. The present system of education verification involves a manual procedure of approaching institutions and getting documents verified.

As the dependency to process these documents lies with the institutes, the verification process can take long. Moreover, the lack of access to a repository of authentic educational degrees as well as the presence of fraud institutions makes the verification prone to risks.The digitisation drive of the government in collaboration with Aadhaar will definitely be a game-changer.