The Côte d'Ivoire now guarantees the authentication of its professional diplomas.
Interview with M. Moussa Dosso, Minister for Technical Education and Professional Training in the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire.
Why decide to introduce a system of professional diploma authentication? Was the spread of false diplomas so worrying?
On coming to office in 2007, I found a deteriorated situation within the Ministry of Technical Education and Professional Training (METPF): our professional training was suffering from a lack of recognition and a loss of credibility through its inability to deliver trustworthy diplomas, which had encouraged a sizeable production of false final qualification documents. The main victims were the Ivory students who were experiencing difficulty in justifying their technical qualifications. Thus the ministry was regularly swamped with requests for proof of the identity of certificate holders. These requests came from companies wishing to verify the qualifications of people they were wanting to recruit, from countries such as the United States, Canada or Europe, where our young graduates wanted to continue their studies. It must be admitted that the METFP was partly responsible for the fact that since 1992, the ministry only delivered a simple pass certificate to successful students. This administrative document was easy to forge. So it became urgent to stop the fraud and re-establish rigorous supervision of the issuing of diplomas signed by the Minister and approved by the state.
How did you go about this?
I entrusted the Management of Examinations and Competitions (DEXC) with the mission to find an unfalsifiable solution, which would re-establish the credibility of our diplomas and the reputation of our education. After rapid and limited consultation, we accepted the solution offered by Prooftag in partnership with EB Concept, its local integrator. It has to be said that this solution had already been in use for two years at a French engineering college, the INSA of Toulouse. This was how the 5,000 professional diplomas of the year 2008 came to include a unique and nonreproducible Bubble Tag™, which enables:
- the authentication of the documents issued by the Côte d'Ivoire Government;
- the verification of the information contained in the paper document, in relation to the digital document stored in the system;
- the rejection of non-existent or irregular documents;
- the verification, anywhere in the world, of the authenticity of the original document or its photocopy via a website.
Security is total, as the data base is managed by Prooftag from France. Now we are concentrating on the printing and securing of the distribution of the 100,000 diplomas, which for 17 years have been waiting and not delivered. I think we shall have overhauled this backlog by next year.
Will this facility be extended to all diplomas issued by the Ivory Government?
In the light of this success, I have contacted my colleagues in the national Education Ministries of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Justice, to study the general introduction of this protection to all diplomas issued by the Government. The decision is theirs, but I am confident they will follow suit. The credibility and recognition of diplomas are essential, if we want to develop an economy seen as reliable and prosperous.
