DLT based student credential system

[IMPACT]

CONTEXT

Education and nation development goes hand in hand. That said, education improves the economic and financial lifestyle of its citizens and also determines the prospects of the future generations.

The crux of blockchain technology is not the technology itself but its intended goals of social change and justice through peer-to-peer communication, autonomous organization and contribution to the globally distributed commons with shared innovative knowledge, resources and open cooperative economy.

Commons-Based Peer Production Blockchain technology is used to develop “ecosystems of collaborators based on distributed ledgers” 

For Example : Training in blockchain could be a compulsory subject in the future for students in environmental studies and the lifelong learning of people who devote their lives for a sustainable world and nature conservation.

Today, the mainstream perception of educational technology is usually through the prisms of Big Data, participatory social media, STEM education and data mining/analytics with subservient technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. This context as well as pedagogic trend chiefly pertain to and depend on “Google’s System of the World,” which is, according to George Gilder, an awkwardly Marxist information structure that is being replaced by a new world order of distributed ledgers.

Blockchain technology is a strong contender to be the most fundamental paradigm shift in digital communication and educational technology.

Much of the reported use of blockchain technology is, however, still at the level of Blockchain technologies 1.0 and 2.0. The Project Connect of the UNICEF is running, for example, a dozen of blockchain-mediated educational projects such as bringing open source technologies to developing communities, investment in educational projects, institutional funding, charity donations and crowdfunding. Across all of these applications, the main benefit is that records such as accounting, investments and donations to education cannot be altered or controlled by any single authority.

Blockchain technology can execute other tasks in education administration and management through its shared ledgers: School staff hiring via smart contracts, continuing professional development, performance and payments, from their first day of work to retirement pensions. Education institutions can apply blockchain technology to administer academic activities.

Smart contracts managed in blockchain systems could establish conditions under which a student would receive a certificate from a provider, and a series of those contracts could define a full degree program. As these students’ progress toward degree fulfillment, their blockchain records could be tracked automatically and shared in real time with potential employers. 

Sharples and Domingue report the University of Nicosia in Cyprus as the first university in the world to issue academic certificates with authenticity verification through the blockchain technology. Furthermore, a national blockchain database of academic credentials could be created at different levels of education.

The above information is sourced from : https://slejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40561-021-00179-2

WHAT ARE WE PROPOSING?

• Introducing unique digital identity for students and teachers
• Student & Teachers performance management system
• Providing Data privacy

DEMOGRAPHIC

The plan is to initiate this in Sri Lankan schools, colleges and universities. The brief demographic of the education system in Sri Lanka is as follows

• Government Schools - 10,156
• No.of Students - 4,063,685
• No of Teachers - 249,494
• Private Schools - 90
• No.of Students - 136,230
• No of Teachers - 8,019
• Higher Education
• Universities - 15
• Institutes - 20
• No. of teachers - 7,258
• No.of students - 41,669

A detailed statistics of student education census in Sri Lanka for the year 2020 is attached below

http://www.statistics.gov.lk/Education/StaticalInformation/SchoolCensus/2020

IDEA

• Lobby with Education Ministry and propose the idea.
• Build an interactive dashboard with easy to use UI/UX and integrating with Atala Prism to provide the SSI.
• Promote the use of technology across Sri Lanka and ensuring wide adoption.
• Once executed 100%, expand to other developing countries.

• Successful negotiations with the education ministry of Sri Lanka
• A/B testing the dashboard
• Creating resources that aid to use the solution with ease for students and teachers.
• Total number of teachers and students trained to utilize the solution

CHALLENGE

Uncertainty around blockchain and crypto regulations

MITIGATION STRATEGY

Lobbying with Ministry of Education to create awareness and benefits of introducing these solutions and how it aids in grassroot development

CHALLENGE

Adaption and large scale ground level deployment

MITIGATION STRATEGY

We intend to do this in phases, province by province, and the ground teams will actively work on creating awareness and practically implementing the solutions.

[FEASIBILITY]

PHASE 1 (LOBBYING) [3 months]

• Create a proposal with the idea brief.
• Lobby with Education Ministry and share a proposal

PHASE 2 (DEVELOPMENT) [3 months]

• Build UI/UX for the Dapp
• Smart Contract Development
• Web3 integration with Atala Prism
• 3rd Party Auditing & Testing

PHASE 3 (DEPLOYEMENT & MARKETING) [ 6 months]

• Dapp launch
• Training the ground teams for creating awareness
• Province-wise deployment

Total Budget $ 60000

PHASE 1 (LOBBYING) [3 months]

Lobbyist Panel (legal, financial, education, technology expert) - $ 15000/ 3 months

PHASE 2 (DEVELOPMENT) [3 months] - $ 30000

• Build UI/UX for the Dapp - 100 hours
• Smart Contract Development - 80 hours
• Web3 integration with Atala Prism - 100 hours
• 3rd Party Auditing & Testing - 50 hours
• 
  

PHASE 3 (DEPLOYEMENT & MARKETING) [ 6 months]

• Dapp launch Marketing - $ 6000
• Training the ground teams for creating awareness - $ 9000

The detail of the team is provided in the link below

https://medium.com/@konmaorg/team-for-lobbying-in-sri-lanka-213815e9a0d7

[AUDITABILITY]

• Total number of schools and colleges onboarded
• Total number of active users
• Dapp performance metrics

Successfully implementing the solution in 15% of educational institutions in Sri Lanka in the first 1 year. In the second year the target is to reach 75%

This is a new proposal.

SDG Rating

SDG goals:

Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

SDG subgoals:

4.1 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people (a) in grades 2/3; (b) at the end of primary; and (c) at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in (i) reading and (ii) mathematics, by sex

4.1.2 Completion rate (primary education, lower secondary education, upper secondary education)

#proposertoolsdg