How Malta’s Embrace Of Blockchain Is Set To Seriously Help Undocumented Refugees
Malta’s plan to race ahead of the queue in embracing the blockchain technology is gathering steam, with a recent project that is issuing notarised blockchain exam certificates to students soon set to be extended for the benefit of undocumented migrants.
This all stems from a deal the education ministry had signed last year with blockchain technology startup Learning Machine for the use of a groundbreaking app called Blockcerts that it had designed together with the MIT Media Lab. The aim of the Blockcerts app is to give people control over their own education certificates in digital format and has already been launched in MCAST and the Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS). All MCAST and ITS students have to do is download the app for free and have the school digitally import records of their results to them.
Once the transaction is complete, the record will be permanent and can be shared with future employers as indisputable proof of their qualifications. The government’s ambitious aim is to extend this app beyond these two schools and into all facets of academic and non-academic education, therefore creating a record of everyone’s lifelong educational certifications.
Malta and Learning Machine signed a memorandum of understanding last year
The next step, which will be implemented before September, will see all state schools issue school-leaving certificates to students via the Blockcerts app.
The government has found another use for this app though – for the benefit of people, mainly refugees, who aren’t in possession of their education certificates and who are therefore consigned to work in low-skilled labour jobs.
Natalie Smolenski, a cultural anthropologist who leads business development for Learning Machine, last year penned an article advocating a global electronic record system that can withstand war and other tragedies that force people to flee their homes.
“Many Syrian refugees have been unable to take their academic transcripts or diplomas with them to their new countries of residence, which has translated into the loss of opportunity at enormous scale,” Smolenski wrote. “For refugees and displaced persons, being able to share their records with officials who can instantly verify their authenticity can mean the difference between the granting of an asylum or residency claim and being sent back to their place of origin; it can mean the difference between employment and joblessness; between having a home they can call their own and life in a camp. It can mean the difference between an education and a lifetime of low-skilled work.”
Smolenski believes this problem can be solved through her blockchain-based app, which allows people to permanently store their official records in cyberspace and access them with the click of a button.
Alex Grech, a consultant at the Education Ministry, confirmed with Lovin Malta that the app will in the coming months start being used by Malta to help professional refugees prove their qualifications.
If they pass a test set by the National Commission for Further And Higher Education (NCFHE) to verify their qualification claims, their skills will be verified on the Blockcerts app for the benefit of potential employers.
“We are transferring power from the institution to the learner,” Grech told a Dubai conference last weekend. “Credentials are not going away any time soon, but must we accept a state of play where people have to beg institutions for their own records? With this plan, everything will be authorised on the blockchain.”
What do you make of this plan?
READ NEXT: Here’s How Malta Plans To Become The First Country In The World To Fully Regulate Blockchain
