Learners need privacy, keep details of their results private

We have discussed our education system and majority seem to suggest there is a problem that needs to be examined than examining learners, true, but as we examine the system can we think of abandoning the unfettered old practice of displaying names of students against their national examination performance in the newspapers and school notice boards without their parent’s consent!

   We agree our system is a straightjacket; that does not consider other aspects of life like talent; a learner either passes exams or is a talk of the whole village despite their other skills that education system never factors, only to them failures.
   Examination results are private information that unless made public by the learners, parents or with their consent they should remain private. We are dealing with minors in primary and secondary schools who need to be protected from the dire attendant consequences of unnecessary publicity of their private information like examination results, and images.

   If we were in the 1970s I would not make these arguments, but look, with the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, the creation, sharing and storage of information is seamless and cheaper, posing several privacy challenges. Now that the practice of publishing learners’ examination results predates the 4IR, when containing and controlling the flow of information was still possible, it is the time we abandoned it because the internet does not indeed forget.
   The Data protection and Privacy legal framework is a good guide on this. Schools and other actors can and throughout the learning ecosystem must use the data protection principles and best practices to avert unwarranted intrusion that has wide consequences on the future of learners.
   Dear readers, you remember in 2021 a 15-year-old girl a pupil of Bwikya Muslim Primary School in Hoima City in western Uganda who committed suicide over ‘poor’ Primary leaving examinations and left a note claiming that ‘there were people laughing at her for performing poorly in PLE’ and another UCE candidate Equasophat Sekyondwa, 23 who also performed poorly in Uganda Certificate Examination, in his last words he stated that he cannot continue living a shameful life, he was described by his headteacher as an average student but very good at football. These incidents are not unique to Uganda, they have happened around the world, in 2019, 20 students committed suicide India when they failed an exam set by the Board of Intermediate Examination, causing strikes and demonstrations.

  The importance of protecting privacy rights cannot be overemphasised, it is necessary if an individual is to live an autonomous, independent life, enjoy mental happiness, develop a variety of diverse interpersonal relationships, formulate unique ideas, opinions, beliefs and ways of living and participate in a democratic pluralistic society.
   Unwarranted publicity of learners examination results has negative consequences on their autonomy, independent life and mental life, the education certifies the none ‘A’ Students as either average or dull despite other potentials in sports like in  the 23 year old  Equasophat Sekyondwa incident were he was described as “an average, student yet very good footballer”- maybe the system robbed us of another Phillip Omondi!
   Two, the legal framework is designed to give protection to children. The Children Act, and The Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019 give special protection to children from unwarranted intrusion of their privacy, these practices stem from the Constitution and several international instruments that Uganda is a party to and seek to protect the ‘Children space’ from any intrusion that is not in their best interest.
    The implications of the foregoing is that, schools, UNEB and other actors in the learning ecosystem dealing with learners, especially minors’ results have an obligation to respect and protect the learners’ right to privacy by following the law!
   Whereas policies like redaction and anonymization of candidates through issuing index numbers have been over time utilised to preserve the integrity of the national examination results, the same have not been deployed as important tools to protect the learners’ right to privacy.

   The importance of privacy to an individual (leaners) and society as demonstrated above certainly justifies the conclusion that it is a fundamental social value, and should be vigorously protected in law. Each intrusion upon the private life of each learner is demeaning not only to the dignity and spirit of the learner, but also to the integrity of the society of which the learner is part.
            Morgan Muhindo,
Legal Tech and Legal Compliance Consultant at Enset Tech Ltd
[email protected]!