In April, Parliament endorsed the introduction of Legal Notice 76 presented by the Minister of Education, which authorised the respective minister to access, collect, use and store data pertaining to each and every student in the education system of our country, including private and Church schools.
Drawing upon our conviction that access to such data regarding students in the absence of clear structures and processes directing the use, processing and storage of such data is just not right, we, the Opposition party, opposed this legal notice.
Despite our opposition, endorsement from Parliament is what this legal notice received. The Nationalist Party has since expressed its consistent reservations against the Legal Notice and made itself available for respective discussions.
We indeed welcome the news that the Minister for Education has decided to put Legal Notice 76 in suspended animation until a working group set up by the Data Protection Commissioner studies the effects and ramifications of the legal notice on our children’s privacy.
It appears that the ‘negative’ position taken by the Nationalist Party in requesting the revocation of the Legal Notice was not off the mark after all. Such a discussion or analysis, however, should have been carried out prior to the promulgation of the Legal Notice, and not as an afterthought.
The Opposition remains committed towards ensuring that the government’s initiative in this regard actually translates into a safe and useful tool that will enable enhanced outcomes of students’ learning, development and employment across the country.
In essence, the Nationalist Party remains committed to advising and supporting the government towards the development of a strategy whereby thorough and robust systems and processes are thereafter produced. These systems and processes will clearly define salient elements of the activity that this Legal Notice has now authorised in an attempt to contain misuse, abuse, waste and harm to data and the individuals to who it pertains.
It appears that the ‘negative’ position taken by the Nationalist Party in requesting the revocation of the Legal Notice was not off the mark after all
These systems and processes will spell out who and how one may access, use and store data. Moreover, these systems and processes should provide the opportunity for individual students (or their respective guardians if not of adult age) to render consent or otherwise, towards the access, use and storage of data pertaining to themselves.
The Opposition will advise the appraisal of pathways trodden by neighbouring countries in this regard. For example, the UK recently published the fourth version of the Individualised Learner Record (ILR). Surely there is much to learn from the efforts and outcomes following repeated refinements done to the UK’s legal procedure of recording students’ individual track through the education and employment sector?
A cursory study of the ILR immediately reveals the minute detail considered in relation to the processing of student data which equates into documented principles and standards. Incredibly, our Legal Notice 76 is just a couple of paragraphs long, further fuelling pertinent questions about privacy breaches.
Can we, as a country, not eat humble pie, and look and learn, and develop comprehensive robust structures such as the ILR of the UK? In a nutshell, the ILR is a dataset that collects information on learners and their learning in the further education system in England, which includes further education colleges, sixth form colleges, independent learning providers, former external institutions, local authorities and voluntary and community organisations.
It is owned and governed by the Information Authority (IA), which is a specific entity created for this purpose, and does not place everything in the hands of the minister. Learners are assumed to opt in, but have the right to opt out if they so request, while researchers can apply to access the ILR data. However, strict guidelines govern the release of data and researchers’ use of it.
Comparing the UK’s ILR with our own Legal Notice 76 is simply impossible due to the broadness and associated risks of our own Legal Notice. But attacking Legal Notice 76 was unfortunately termed ‘negative’.
We trust that the Legal Notice that went through Parliament in April but which has now been put on ice until the Data Protection working group studies the situation is the start and not the end of such a journey. Is it? This is not for me or the PN to answer.
The Nationalist Party will continue to do its level best to ensure that this Legal Notice is the indeed the start of a process that will lead to a fruitful, safe and fair tool of data tracking and recording, accessibility and use of student data.
Joseph Cassar is the Nationalist Party’s spokesman for education.