Consenting is Complicated

Following is a gist of a news report that appeared in MINT ( 10 Sept 2016 ) :

Government announces plan to digitize academic records

“ All educational institutions, including universities, will implement the scheme. It will be hugely beneficial for students,” the ( HRD ) minister said.

Degrees, diplomas, mark sheets, migration certificate, skill certificate, etc., will be digitized and put in the national academic depository ( NAD ).

Higher education secretary said the depository will share students’ information with anyone—like an employer or background screening firms—only after getting consent from a student. But companies have been complaining about frauds in job applications, including academic frauds, and because of the lack of a national system that can help them verify academic records online by paying a nominal fee.

The NAD will authenticate records, eliminate the menace of fake and forged awards without flouting privacy.

The ministry is looking to tag the academic records with the Aadhaar number to facilitate verification, e-KYC and retrieval.

While educational institutions will be registering the students data online, students can themselves log in to the NAD and put their previous academic records by linking their Aadhaar number and fulfilling an e-KYC. "

Without doubt , an excellent initiative

Issues to be considered :

#   How exactly will a jobseeker " give consent " to a prospective Employer , to take a look at his Mark Sheets / Certificates etc  deposited online ( previous academic record ) ?

#   Will employer ( to whom jobseeker has applied for a job ) , get to access " Current Academic Record " of the applicant , without needing his " Consent " ?

#  How will these " previous academic record " ,  get  " certified as true "  ?

Suggested Procedure :

#  After registering and uploading his " previous academic record " in NAD , person uploading will need to click on a button ( VERIFY ) , against the Name of the College / University / Institution who he claims , has issued that Certificate

An E mail alert will go out to that Institution to login and verify ( either as " TRUE " or as " FALSE " )

#  When so verified ( by the concerned Institution ) , the concerned person will get an e mail alert ( either way )

#  Thereafter , student can access this NAD web page on his mobile ( through a Mobile App ? ) and show it to the prospective Employer , across the table , during interview

May be he can SMS / E mail that page to the Employer

OTHER  RELATED  ISSUES :

If a person has applied for a job ( by sending an email resume ) , should that not , constitute his " Automatic and Implied Consent " to the Employer to " Access " his academic record online on NAD web site ?  I think so

In that case , the job-applicant can just include in his Resume , a link to the relevant web page of NAD site , which the recruiter can click . This will prove very convenient for overseas recruiters

But what about " Public at large " being able to " access " ( without needing any explicit consent ) , the educational qualifications of ( say ) :

#   Candidates contesting all kinds of elections ( Lok Sabha / State Assemblies / Municipalities / Panchayats )

#   Government Officers ( persons holding office of profit )

#   Current Ministers / MPs / MLAs / Corporators  / generally , all Public servants

#   Consultants ( Doctors / Lawyers / Engineers etc )

The list can be quite long  !

And finally , what about persons who just won't upload their educational records ?

What can / should be done to " motivate " them to upload ? ( since this is NOT mandatory )

Can they be prevented from freely accessing such records of others , UNLESS they have uploaded themselves ? 

By requiring to " log in " into NAD web site , using User ID / Password , which is issued  ONLY AFTER  they have uploaded their own records ? 

( I mean , their PAST records , since Universities / Edu Institutions are mandated for the FUTURE records of everyone )

Question :

Is a person's Educational Record , his own PRIVATE PROPERTY , or it ought to be something in PUBLIC DOMAIN ?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

16  Sept  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs