Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood on Tuesday announced that the education ministry, in consultation with local and international stakeholders, has developed an e-portal for the Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) that will let students receive equivalence certificates at their doorstep after completing "simple" formalities.

The IBCC issues equivalence certificates for A and O levels, International Baccalaureate Programmes, religious degrees and other qualifications.

Addressing a ceremony in Islamabad, the minister said everything from the submission of payment challan to documents had now been digitalised and students would be able to track their application status.

“Previously students used to face extreme difficulty, carrying their original documents to the IBCC office, then queueing up for hours for their turn before making it to banks to submit challans,” Mahmood said.

He added that students would brave difficulties because most of them were unfamiliar with the banking process.

Mahmood said the entire process was a burdensome one and there were fears of misplacement of original documents submitted by the students.

He said the new system was devised after meetings with all stakeholders, including the 30 boards in Pakistan and international education boards such as Cambridge.

The minister said students facing issues accessing the online facility could still avail the manual process that was in place already.

He said once the online application had been completed, students would receive a certificate at their address, adding that in future “these certificates will also be given to students in PDF format”.

He said this upgradation was a “revolutionary change”, which aims to create ease for students, adding that several other steps would be taken in the future to facilitate students.