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Questions raised about why report on controversial IDB Survey was sent to Ministry of Education

by Emmanuel Joseph
4 min read
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Human rights activist Felicia Dujon has questioned the handling of the findings of the probe into whether the administering of the controversial Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) survey to hundreds of schoolchildren in October broke any data protection laws.

She contended in an interview with Barbados TODAY that the Data Protection Department which conducted the probe should not have forwarded the report to the Ministry of Education which took ultimate responsibility for the minors being subjected to the offending questionnaire without parental consent.

“Who is the one that’s going to be responsible for whatever [action is taken] unless the report says no harm has been done or no kind of breaches have been done?” questioned Dujon, who is leading efforts by a group of parents to sue the Government over the survey.

“The ministry cannot hold itself accountable. That sort of thing you may need to send to the public service or somebody that is independent, but you can’t send the probe findings back to them. That seems very, very strange…. So we are just waiting to hear what the outcome would be.”

The questions in the Computer Science pre-test survey that were considered inappropriate and invasive and sparked public outrage included whether students ever deliberately tried to hurt or kill themselves, heard sounds or voices that other people think aren’t there, thought about suicide, or wished they were of the opposite sex, among other issues.

Earlier this week, Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science, and Smart Technology Davidson Ishmael confirmed to Barbados TODAY that Data Protection Commissioner Lisa Greaves had completed her investigation and the findings were passed on to the Education Ministry which had requested the investigation.

However, Dujon insisted that the Data Protection Department, as the regulator and the agency with oversight of data protection in Barbados, or another independent body should decide on the next course of action, if any is required.

“The report should not have been sent to the Ministry of Education. The Data Protection Commissioner has sufficient authority to determine what should be done with the outcome. [The Data Protection Act] clearly states that if there are breaches in the Act in itself, what the sanctions are. So the commissioner should have that kind of authority to make any kind of decision and not send the report back to the Ministry of Education who are actually the ones who committed whatever offences or whatever breaches or negligence [that may have occurred],” the human rights activist declared.

“So it seems very dubious that the department would send the report to the ministry rather than independent stakeholders that would deal with that matter very privately and, of course, very independently. We need that kind of objectivity, particularly with that particular matter.

“So I am hoping that the parents and their attorney contact the Data Protection Commissioner to find out what is going on because I am sure that they themselves would like a copy of the report or would like to be briefed on the report and what the report actually says,” Dujon added.

Minister Ishmael had expressed surprise that the results of the probe had not yet been shared with the key stakeholders.

When Barbados TODAY checked on Monday with the heads of the IDB, the Barbados Union of Teachers, the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU), the Barbados Association of Principals of Public Secondary Schools, and the National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, they all indicated they had not yet seen the report.

“I would have thought actually it would have been disseminated to the key stakeholders by now, but I am not entirely sure,” Ishmael had said. “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.”

Persistent efforts on Wednesday to reach Minister of Education Kay McConney and Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw were unsuccessful.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb

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