Blockchain Technology: How it will revolutionise Indian Education

Blockchain is a type of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLR), a fixed and decentralized ledger of all transactions across a peer-to-peer network. What differentiates blockchain from a typical database is how it stores information; blockchains store data in blocks linked together. The power of DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) is sufficient to revolutionize many sectors, and the education sector is not an exception. A PwC report estimates the blockchain's overall contribution to the Indian economy to be worth $62.2 billion by 2030.

According to the Blockchain Report 2019 by NASSCOM, the adoption of blockchain technology in India is witnessing exponential growth and investments such as projects crossing $20 billion across various industries.

An organized and well-structured system is the need of the hour in the education sector. Education involves a lot of data and warrants intricate data management, especially information related to students. Through a blockchain-enabled record-keeping system, students' previous academic credentials can be very quickly verified.

The degrees and certificates that students earn over the years are of significant importance to them. Notarizing them digitally through a blockchain-based network will allow the students to access them anytime and anywhere. At the same time, it is tedious to substantiate students' claims to a certain academic achievement through a certificate or a degree from the perspective of potential employers. Thus, such responsibilities are often outsourced by employers to confirm the legitimacy of such certificates. This entire process of verification can be fast-tracked through a blockchain-based network.

Similarly, transferring to a different university/institution or course than the one they are already enrolled in can also become more accessible through blockchain. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (US), roughly 80% of college students change their major at least once. With a decentralized system of management, new colleges can easily verify student's academic history.

Rohit Manglik, CEO, EduGorilla

Blockchain technology will also find potential usage in the education loan segment. Education loans are common practice among students to study for higher education. The number of students in India who opt for ₹20 lakh+ in educational loans has increased six times in the five years till 2018. From the banks' perspective, verification, which often has to be done manually through intensive paperwork, is often too complex. A blockchain-based verification system can predict the probability of repayment of loans by analyzing students' academic history and thereby save loans from becoming Non-Performing Assets (NPA) and maintain the creditworthiness of banks and financial institutions. Similarly, blockchain can also be used to verify academic information viz. government Grants, private grants and scholarships, etc., quickly.

Blockchain technology will also address the issue of rights and privacy of information for individuals. One of the salient features of the DLR (Distributed Ledger Technology) is its role in creating a unified space for all educational achievements throughout one's lifetime. Privacy in the blockchain is ensured by not storing any data but by keeping the hash of data. The immutability of the information provided is through its hash chain-based approach. Thus, students cannot alter past educational certifications that will also help in reducing the forgery of academic documents and reducing the complexities related to movement between states and countries.

Blockchain technology also provides a transparent medium of transaction. Though it may seem counter-intuitive that something ensures privacy and transparency simultaneously, blockchain databases are a perfect example of how privacy and transparency can co-exist. The immutable ledger technology of blockchain synthesizes and records data in a chronological manner of events that have instantaneously occurred, thereby enabling a quick verification for such transcripts with a report. So, when a student submits his homework through blockchain, there would be no room for excuses like "homework is lost" or "the teacher misplaced it."

A Gartner CIO Survey conducted in 2019 points out that 2% of higher education respondents have already deployed blockchain. In contrast, another 18% added that they were planning to do so within the next 24 months. Blockchain can also make the learning process for the students an engaging and productive experience. The concept of rewarding learning seems far-fetched, but it may become a reality sooner than anticipated through blockchain systems. With the leveraging of blockchain, academic institutions will be able to incentivize students to pay educational loans on time and motivate teachers to perform better through a reward system of cryptocurrency for outstanding performers. It will bring in an element of gamification of education which is a proven way of promoting education.

India is also taking giant leaps towards blockchain technology. Recently, the draft strategy for National Level Blockchain Framework was formulated by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY). The National Informatics Centre (NIC) & NICSI have also established the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Blockchain technology with an objective to accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology, offer its platform as a service to revamp design and development efforts and execute projects focusing on different use cases.

However, there are several on-ground hurdles in the deployment of blockchain technology. The policy framework is still in a nascent stage in India, and there is a long way to go to devise standard benchmarks and clear ambiguities. One of the key features of blockchain technology is that information is stored in every node of the entire chain that poses formidable privacy and security issues. The data stored in the blockchain cannot be deleted permanently and conflicts with the 'Right to be Forgotten' clause as envisioned in the draft Personal Data Protection Bill 2019. Scalability is also a significant impediment because the network processing speed might slow down considerably with the wider adoption of blockchain. Lack of trust issues and limited understanding of blockchain technology also need urgent attention.

A well-defined legal framework will be a critical step to encourage the adoption of blockchain and reap its tremendous benefits. With increased transparency and privacy, blockchain will usher in a new era in database management in the education sector.

Author: Rohit Manglik, CEO, EduGorilla