STAFF CORRESPONDENT

The Election Commission (EC) is set to introduce major changes to the education section of the National Identity (NID) registration form, allowing citizens to specify madrasa qualifications as well as advanced academic degrees.

Officials at the EC’s NID wing said registrants currently can only select broad education levels such as secondary, higher secondary, bachelor’s or master’s. Under the proposed changes, madrasa qualifications including Dakhil, Alim, Fazil, Kamil and Dawrae Hadith will be recognised separately.

Advanced academic and professional qualifications such as BSc (Engineering), MBBS, MS/MD, MPhil and PhD will also be included in the database.

Md Saiful Islam, director (Operations) of the NID wing, said the move is aimed at reflecting citizens’ educational and professional identities more accurately.

“A person spends years earning a degree, yet our database did not reflect it specifically. Now we plan to add higher education degrees in line with professional identity,” he said.

He said the initiative, now at a preliminary stage, would be formalised through legal and regulatory processes.