The science pre-test questionnaire which wThe findings of an investigation into the administration of a controversial Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) pre-test questionnaire to first-form students of five secondary schools are now in the hands of the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training.
Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology Davidson Ishmael confirmed to Barbados TODAY that the Ministry of Education had been furnished with the results of the probe, undertaken by his department, to determine whether any data protection laws had been breached. However, he declined to reveal the findings.
A check on Monday with the heads of the IDB, the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU), the Barbados Association of Principals of Public Secondary Schools (BAPPS), and the National Council of Parent Teacher Associations (NCPTA) revealed that none had so far received the report.
Declaring that the Commissioner of Data Protection Lisa Greaves had done her part, Minister Ishmael expressed surprise that the results of the probe had not yet been shared with the key stakeholders.
“The matter was referred to our department and the department would have responded to the ministry that would have requested that investigation. That response was already issued by the department under my ministry to the relevant authorities. We have done our investigation, we have done our part, we sent off the information to the relevant parties,” he said in an interview with Barbados TODAY.
“I would have thought actually it would have been disseminated to the key stakeholders by now, but I am not entirely sure. I think that probably is the Ministry of Education. The matter did come to the Data Protection Commissioner and the Data Protection Commissioner would have investigated and given an opinion on the matter and submitted that to the relevant authorities and that is where it is at this point in time.”
Ishmael suggested that the authorities would release the information as deemed necessary, in due course.
Efforts to reach Minister of Education Kay McConney and Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw were unsuccessful.
The IDB survey, which was presented as a Computer Science pre-test in early October, gathered information about the sexuality, gender identity and home circumstances, among other things, of ten-year-olds and 11-year-olds without parental consent.
It sparked criticism and even protests from the general public, parents, several organisations, the religious community and academics who deemed several questions in the survey inappropriate and invasive.
The Ministry of Education and the IDB had issued separate apologies, with the latter admitting that even though the education officials had objected to the inclusion of certain questions and they were to be removed, the survey was still disseminated in its original form.
Minister McConney had said the survey was halted in schools until a data and ethics policy is finalised.
Greaves, who took up the post of Data Protection Commissioner on July 15, 2021, as the first such appointee, was also asked to look into whether there was any breach of the Data Protection Act.
Her office is responsible for the general administration of the Act as the primary regulatory authority for data protection in Barbados.
The Act requires the commissioner to investigate complaints concerning abuses in the processing of personal data as well as to receive and invite representations from members of the public on any matter affecting the privacy of persons in respect of their personal data, and conduct investigations on the application of the Act. This includes looking into the collection of personal data by any public authority or the disclosure of personal data by one public authority to another public authority.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
