Tunisia has adopted a blockchain-powered system to verify education credentials, joining other nations in the Arab world relying on blockchain to stamp out fake diplomas.
The Tunisian government revealed that it has officially integrated the Unified Arab System for Diploma Authenticity Verification after participating in a successful pilot project involving three local universities.
The program was proposed four years ago by the Tunis-based Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), which coordinates educational and cultural activities across the Arab world. It was then approved by a conference of higher education ministers in the member countries in 2021 as part of the region’s roadmap for better education standards by 2030.
Under the system, each diploma is stored on a distributed ledger as a unique and tamper-proof record which can be retrieved at will.
Blockchain’s immutability guarantees that the records can’t be forged, replaced, taken down, or altered. The ledger’s decentralized nature also allows anyone, from employers to government and education institutions, to access the credentials at any time.
Previously, verifying education credentials in Tunisia was a lengthy process that involved liaising with educational institutions and government offices, where most processes were manual and tedious.
Naturally, thousands of Tunisians have taken advantage of this opaque and lengthy process to secure employment with fake diplomas. A study by the Tunisian Association for the Fight Against Corruption in 2023 revealed that nearly 200,000 civil servants had used fake credentials to get lucrative jobs within the government between 2011 and 2021. For context, the Tunisian government only had about 600,000 civil servants as of December last year.
The blockchain system has also been implemented in the neighboring states of Libya, Algeria, and Egypt. Libya joined the system early last year, describing it as a vital program that will “have a positive impact on protecting universities, employers and graduates from degree fraud along with facilitating the issuing of certificates during emergencies, including during war, political instability as well as environmental and health crises.”
While the system is administered by ALESCO, an Arab world organization, stakeholders have called for its expansion across the continent.
Samir Khalaf Abd-El-Aal, a researcher from Egypt’s National Research Center, told one outlet that this would make verification easier and faster and enhance cross-border employment.
Fake diplomas are rampant in Africa, with several cases of professionals who have risen to the top of their fields, and even led industry associations despite not having legitimate papers.
This has led to widespread crackdowns on these fake diplomas; Nigeria, for instance, no longer recognizes any degree issued in Kenya, Uganda, Togo, or Benin due to high fraud cases in those countries.
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Steve Kaaru