The Education Minister has written to the Data Protection Commissioner seeking advice on concern expressed on a legal notice on data concerning persons in educational institutions.

The regulations enable the minister to collect data relating to students, including identity card numbers, for the purposes of research and to help vulnerable children. They provide for adequate advice to be given on employment prospects and to prepare plans for their training pursuant to the provisions of the act, the ministry said.

In his letter, the minister says he consulted the Data Protection Office at all stages of the drafting of the notice between September and January and always followed the advice given.

However, since several raised genuine concerns which the ministry would like to address, it said it would like work hand in hand with the office to be guided to ensure protection of the data subjects.

"The only scope of the ministry is to help vulnerable children and to facilitate the transition from education to employment," the minister said.

Among other, concern has been expressed by heads of schools, who constitute the Church Schools Committee within the Private Schools Association and the Nationalist Party.

PN calls on Commissioner to take immediate action about notice

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Party wrote to the Commissioner presenting a formal complaint about the notice and requesting immediate action.

“You will appreciate that this legal notice was published by government at a time when no person held the office of Information and Data Protection Commissioner in Malta, thus not allowing any interested person the possibility to raise a formal complaint or concern on this issue with the appropriate authorities.”

The notice, they said, gave the minister broad powers to obtain data from educational institutions without specifying the exact purpose, it was to be collected directly without consent and no definition of the terms data or research was given.

Moreover, the notice failed to give any guarantees whatsoever and did not fulfil the required conditions.

The PN’s letter to the Data Commissioner can be read in the pdf link below.