ISLAMABAD: Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood on Friday launched the digital equivalence certificate verification service introduced by Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC).

The launching ceremony was held at Ministry of Federal Education on Dec 16, 2021. IBCC Secretary Dr Ghulam Ali Mallah briefed the minister on the utility and benefits of this new service.

IBCC is the umbrella board of all educational boards and is responsible for issuing equivalence certificates to O and A level students.

Speaking to participants of the launching ceremony, the minister said in light of the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, all organisations working under the education ministry are digitalising processes for transparency in order to facilitate the public.

After successful completion of online equivalence process, the IBCC has digitalised the process of verification of equivalence certificates. This service will enhance accessibility, reduce the cost and time besides other hurdles faced by organisations within or outside the country. He appreciated IBCC for facilitating the public through the use of technology.

Dr Ghulam Ali Mallah said that security feature in certificates will be integrated through encrypted QR code. Now, organisations, institutions or universities do not need to send documents to IBCC for verification. He said this is a real-time verification through which organisations can quickly verify data on their mobile or computer and will receive a verification email for their official record.

“Due to this new security feature the IBCC will also save millions of rupees annually by removing old and traditional manual security features from the certificate”, he said and added that work load on staff of IBCC will also be reduced.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2021