The Oyo State Ministry of Education says birth certificates and National Identification Numbers (NIN) have become mandatory requirements for school enrolment as part of efforts to strengthen digital identity and education records.

The permanent secretary in the ministry, Oyinloye Bamidele, disclosed this in Ibadan on Sunday, while speaking on school enrolment and digital identity.

Ms Bamidele said the policy was being implemented in collaboration with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and aligned with the federal government’s digital identity initiative.

According to her, enrolment records in Oyo schools are now digitised and stored in a central database, replacing largely paper-based record systems.

“We are in a digital age, so once a pupil or student is registered, it goes into our central database. We have all our records digitised,” she said.

The permanent secretary, however, identified the inability of some parents to obtain birth certificates for their children as the major challenge in linking birth registration, school enrolment and digital identity.

She added that some students were unable to present birth certificates because their parents had not registered them or were unavailable during the admission process.

Ms Bamidele explained that while birth certificates and NINs were mandatory for enrolment, the ministry allowed some flexibility in NIN registration, allowing affected students to obtain the identity number before reaching terminal classes, where it would be required for national examinations.

She said the ministry had also partnered with NIMC to register eligible pupils and students in schools with large numbers of unregistered learners.

According to her, NIMC officials visit such schools with registration equipment after prior arrangements with school authorities to enrol students in batches.

Ms Bamidele said the policy had been in place across Oyo State for the past two years, encouraging more parents to obtain birth certificates and NIN for their children.

On data protection, she assured that the ministry’s education database was not open to the public, noting that access was restricted to relevant education authorities, while researchers could obtain approved data strictly for specified purposes.

She added that some education data were also published on the ministry’s official website, while sensitive information remained secured through collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education.

“The data is secured and not accessible to everybody. The ministry provides privacy, security and responsible use of students’ personal data as Oyo State advances digitalisation of education records and services,” she said.

Ms Bamidele reaffirmed the ministry’s commitment to leveraging technology to improve education administration and ensure more efficient record management across the state’s schools. 

(NAN)