Principal wants information

Is data protection at the expense of primary school pupils?

Franz Bicek is the principal of elementary school 47 in Linz-Ebelsberg.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Franz Bicek, Markus Wenzel)

A primary school head teacher in Linz complains that he doesn't find out enough in advance about possible impairments of his new pupils. This is because there is an information problem at the interface between kindergarten and school. In principle, only a signature from the parents would be required to pass on data.

Franz Bicek, principal of elementary school 47 in Linz, recounts an extreme example: one of his pupils ran away on the first day. "If we had known that he was the type, we could have kept an eye on him. But there are lots of new children on the first day of school - and he was gone in a flash," says Bicek about the incident, which ended well: The boy was found again, he was on the school grounds.

"There is a lot of uncertainty about what you can pass on"
What the principal criticizes: There is an information problem at the interface between kindergarten and elementary school, he says. The kindergartens often do not pass on the children's special needs to the new school for data protection reasons. "There is a great deal of uncertainty as to what information can be passed on, which is why there is none at all," says Bicek.

Yet it would be important for the principal to be able to prepare for the prospective pupils. Especially if they have special educational needs, such as a learning disability or a form of autism. "If I know, for example, that a pupil needs a place of retreat, I can prepare for this," argues Bicek.

Data transfer following parental signature
However, data exchange is already possible in principle: if parents sign a declaration of consent, information on special educational needs may be passed on from nurseries to the school authorities. However, medical diagnoses are excluded from this, according to the Upper Austrian Education Directorate.

Politicians are also concerned about the issue: "If the elementary school has to reassess the first-graders in question to determine whether they have special educational needs, important time is lost to support the children. A legal basis must be created that enables data to be passed on," demands SPÖ education spokesperson Doris Margreiter.

A corresponding motion by the SPÖ was initially assigned to a committee in the provincial parliament.