Following the successful completion of the trial, the initiative is now extended to all the schools in the country, including secondary school certificates given to students by independent schools, church and the state.
To achieve the objective, the Malta government has inked a two year agreement with software firm Learning Machine to develop a workable system.
While taking part in the contract signing ceremony, Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat supposedly claimed that the country is the first in the world to upload all education certificates on a blockchain. He further stated:
“In 2017, we said Malta will become the blockchain island, and it has.”
However, Malta is not the only country which is issuing education certificates that are verifiable on blockchain. The University of Bahrain has started issuing diplomas on the blockchain. Trade Arabia has pointed out that the university’s blockchain initiative is a portion of a total digitization plan for mobile learners.
In mid-October 2017, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) issued blockchain based digital certificates to over 100 graduates as part of a trial program. A custom built application was developed for this purpose, allowing graduates to share a “tamper-proof” and “verifiable” electronic version of the certificates with potential employers or anyone else.
In December 2016, there were news reports of Kenyan government opting for IBM’s enterprise grade blockchain solution to build a tamper free and transparent education administration network.
In July 2018, a bunch of bills providing legality for blockchain and crypto related firms were passed by the Malta government.
Silvio Schembri, Junior Minister for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation within the Office of the Prime Minister of Malta said
“The three Bills that will regulate distributed ledger technology (DLT) have been approved by Parliament and enacted into law. Malta , the first world jurisdiction to provide legal certainty to this space.”
#Malta is now the first nation worldwide to roll out all its #education certificates and credentials on #blockchain -JM @EvaristBartolo @SilvioSchembri @clifton_grima @edukazzjoni @LearningMach1 pic.twitter.com/XqPrvkBMoH
— Joseph Muscat (@JosephMuscat_JM) February 21, 2019