Unions oppose bill for extensive database on students

(CH) Two unions are objecting plans to create a new database on students with additional information about their parents and social backgrounds.

Scholaria, the file for basic education and the file “students” for secondary education, will contain data such as the name, surname, address, grades, school or the current class of the student under current government plans.

In addition, the education ministry (MEN) now wishes to supplement the existing information with additional data providing information on students and their parents.

The legislation calls for the collection, reporting and processing of information that not only concerns the education of students but equally the socio-economic situation in which they were born into.

For this purpose the new database could feature information on occupation, educational level and occupational status of parents, country of origin, languages spoken at home, the ranking of siblings and others. The data would then be stored for 15 years before being de-personalised (ie the name of the person featured would be removed).

An invasion of privacy and inadequate protection, believes the CSL.

Workers union the CSL is objecting to the proposal, calling it an invasion of privacy and raising fears about protecting young people's identities.

“The CSL sees critically such an initiative that risks to violate the privacy of those involved. In addition, it considers that a database of this size is certainly not necessary to ensure the smooth running of a school which has been an argument used to justify the collection and processing of data,” announced the House of employees in a statement.

The bill allows those involved in collecting and receiving educational and socio-economic data access to information from other secure organisations: the future database is supposed to be filled with information gathered by the MEN, but also by various other institutions such as the ADEM, the General Inspectorate of the Social Security Fund or the National Family Allowance, notes the CSL.

Furthermore, the MEN could transmit personal data of students and their parents to various organisations like the University of Luxembourg, the CEPS or others.

Given the large number of organisations involved, the CSL has strong reservations over protection in terms of communication and processing of unencrypted data.

“The Bills and current Grand-Ducal Regulation can not find the approval of the Chamber of employees”

Other points with which the CSL does not agree: the lack of mechanisms that check the accuracy and update the information contained within the database.

The union emphasised the importance of protecting fundamental rights and freedoms and thus called for a restrictive approach towards all processing of personal data.

Too many organisations with authorised access.

Not only the CSL but also the National Student's Union (UNEL) is sceptical in regard to such an extensive database.

In principle, the Union welcomes the initiative that could support better evaluation and planning opportunities for the school system. There are indeed no complete statistics that make an adequate evaluation of school processes possible, explains Nico Fehlen, president of the UNEL.

However, he said this should not happen at the expense of student's privacy. Despite restrictions and security levels, he fears too many organisations would have authorised access to personal records.

Furthermore, the immense wealth of information will be de-personalised earliest 15 years after graduation. This time period Nico Fehlen believes, should be shortened as there is no need to leave nominal information open to access for such a long time.

Overall, while the UNEL supports a new database as such, it raises the question in how far privacy could be protected through such extensive access, especially in a small country like Luxembourg.

The CSL is demanding an overhaul of the bill and of Grand-Ducal regulations that relate to the establishment of a database of students.