As a result of a recently formed partnership, the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam (MOET) will now have access to the blockchain services offered by the smart contract platform TomoChain. The Ministry would implement blockchain technology in order to take advantage of its fundamental properties, which include data immutability and transparency.
According to a press release that was distributed by AMBCrypto, a programme run by the Ministry of Education called the National Qualifications Archive will ensure that all certifications earned by students in the country while they are enrolled in high school or higher education are uploaded to the TomoChain blockchain. This would be Vietnam’s most extensive investigation into the use of blockchain technology to date. In point of fact, the adoption of a public blockchain on a national scale by a major government agency occurs for the very first time as a result of this initiative.
To this point, governments and researchers have only discussed the implementation of blockchain technology. While an advisor to the United Nations wanted Kenya to adopt blockchain technology in order to combat government corruption and economic crimes, Kenya has not done so. A research department at King’s College London outlined the ways in which blockchain technology could mitigate the dangers posed by the possibility of nuclear conflict. But at this point, these ideas are still just concepts on paper.
It would appear that the situation is the same in the field of education as well. The University of Melbourne began utilising blockchain technology in 2017 for a variety of services, including the issuance of digital credentials. According to the findings of a survey that was carried out in 2018, only 2% of respondents from higher education institutions were using blockchain technology, and 47% of those same respondents reported having no interest in the technology.
Nguyen Van Phuc, Deputy Minister of Education and Training in Vietnam, issued the following statement after noting the benefits that blockchain technology can bring to the educational sector:
The issue of diploma and certificate management is one that needs to be resolved by technology. This is an issue that needs to be resolved because it is important for the entirety of society as well as cost-efficient for the diploma management system in particular, and education in general.
The implementation of the system on a national scale is scheduled to take place during the school year 2020-2021. Following the conclusion of the successful test, the National Qualifications Archives system will begin accepting all types of diplomas that have been issued by training units that fall under the Ministry. This will amount to approximately 1.5 million diplomas being added each year.
Prior to the formation of this partnership, TomoChain, which is headquartered in Singapore, gained enterprise experience by developing solutions for the fields of healthcare, energy, and automotive manufacturing.