Kaeo Primary School privacy breach 'an error'

The principal of a small Northland school who posted private student information online says it was done "in error" and he removed it from the school website as soon as he was informed.

Kaeo Primary School's Paul Barker said he mistakenly posted a "teachers only" version of student achievement information on the site this year. The online documents included names of underperforming children and those requiring extra assistance.

The documents were discovered in February by Tikipunga Primary School principal Donna Donnelly, who said she stumbled on them while doing research.

Ms Donnelly said she emailed the Ministry of Education and the New Zealand Principals Federation, advising them of the privacy breach at Kaeo and asking them to do something.

Ms Donnelly sent another email to the ministry in October and another last week, at which time she contacted the Northern Advocate.

The ministry would not answer questions on why it did not contact the school earlier, saying only that it did a search of the website, which identified the private information, and the principal was contacted immediately.

Pauline Cleaver, ministry programme manager for regional education, said it had advised boards they shouldn't report student achievement information where the student could be identified.

"The Privacy Act promotes and protects individual privacy and should be adhered to," Ms Cleaver said.

The Privacy Commissioner said publishing such data would be a breach of privacy, however because the documents had been removed there would be no further investigation.

Mr Barker said he regretted the error and rectified the situation as soon as he was aware of it.

Parents of students at the school said they believed Mr Barker's explanation and wondered why it had taken the ministry so long to bring the situation to his attention.

Karen Nathan, parent of a Kaeo Primary pupil, said Mr Barker was Kaeo's best principal in a long time: "I don't think you'd find any parent that would fault Paul."

Another parent, who didn't want to be named, said he believed the mistake had been genuine and the information had not been widely seen.

Ms Donnelly said the matter highlighted the issue of publishing student achievement data.

As of next year, schools will be required to publish student achievement data in accordance with the Government's National Standards policy.

The ministry may have to act as a central repository for achievement data, to avoid potential privacy breaches, Ms Donnelly said.

Information made public "must be handled with sensitivity and student privacy must be a priority".