The Government has launched a draft legal notice for public consultation concerning data protection in education, which amongst others regulates the collection of information about students.
The announcement comes a week after the Minister of Education told Times of Malta that a controversial legal notice which would have given him the authority to collect personal data on students, was being replaced.
"This consultation exercise is in line with the concept of open government and aims to gather feedback from the general public, civil society organizations, trade unions, business organizations, political parties, governmental institutions and all others that would like to contribute towards this process," the Ministry of Education said this morning.
"Government has an obligation to address deficiencies in the education system resulting in a good number of students with little or no qualifications and lack of skills or capabilities to enter the labour market.
"To address this deficiency, as promised in the electoral manifesto, the need is felt to enhance our educational system to include and integrate all students and avoid drop outs and early school leavers to the detriment of the students themselves and of Maltese society at large. These measures could only be achieved if both educational authorities and institutions, as well as examination bodies, work together to address this problem at national level.
"To implement the necessary measures, the personal data of students have to be processed but this has to be done in accordance with the Data Protection Act to reach the necessary balance between the need for processing and the right to protect and safeguard personal data," the ministry said.
Over the past weeks, a working group chaired by the Data Protection Commissioner
carried out an evaluation exercise to provide solutions as to how the processing of personal information in the educational sector could be achieved.
The group was composed of representatives from the Ministry of Education and Employment, the Ministry for Social Dialogue, Consumer Affairs and Civil Liberties, church and independent schools, MCAST, ITS, University as well as representatives
from the Directorate for Educational Services.
Following agreement between all interested parties, a legal notice has been drafted to regulate processing in the whole educational sector and is being put up for public consultation.
The draft legal notice can be accessed from
http://msdc.gov.mt/en/Public_Consultations/MEDE/Pages/Consultations/ProcessingOfPersonalData
Feedback can be sent either directly from the website or else by email on
onlineconsultations.msdc@gov.mt or by mail.
PN - CONSULTATION SHOULD HAVE COME FIRST
The Nationalist Party said it welcomed the consultation process, even though it was a late one.
It said that the governemnt, should, however, annul the original legal notice.
The PN also noted government inconsistencies over the issue.
The government first introduced the first legal notice by stealth,. Then, when the opposition objected, the governemnt defended it.
The government MPs voted against a motion in parliament to have the legal notice repealed and the legal notice remained in force.
Then the government said the legal notice would be repealed.
It then set up a working group to study the legal notice. Now it had started a process of public consultation.
The public consultation should have come before everything else, the PN said.