Page 4 - Education Feature Issue 2 2021

EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

The Significance of the

POPI Act for Schools

and Colleges

By Ann Arnott

n terms of our South African Constitution, no longer required, it must be responsibly disposed of (shredded in the case of hard copy records)
everyone has a right to privacy and this and deleted (and removed from the storage device’s trash as well) from any computers or servers
Iis one of the reasons why the Protection where it was stored.
of Personal Information (POPI) Act was
signed into law in November 2013. The WHAT TO DO IF THERE’S A BREACH OF PRIVACY
Act came into effect on 1 July 2020, with a In a POPI-compliant entity, there should be a requirement for all staff members to undergo some
12 month grace period so that businesses kind of training, depending on the amount of personal information they deal with.
and organisations (entities) could make sure
they were fully compliant. If there’s a breach of privacy, the entity must take remedial steps to rectify the situation. Remedial
action could involve contacting all the people affected by the breach – along with further training
What does this mean for the Education for the person who caused the breach.
Sector? Schools and tertiary institutions,
by their very nature, have to gather a lot of YOUR RIGHTS AS AN INDIVIDUAL
information about their students and it’s an Everyone has the right to have their personal information (or their child’s information) rectified or
ongoing process – contact information for deleted if it is:
parents/caregivers and next of kin, banking • out of date
and billing details, attendance registers, • current but inaccurate
subject choices, marks from assignments and • misleading
exams, extra-murals given by the school, staff • irrelevant to where and why it is stored
details, details of service providers and more. • has been obtained unlawfully.
Some of the information might be stored in
a hard copy version and a lot, these days, is If you find that you or your child’s personal information has been unlawfully obtained by a
stored digitally. marketing firm or individuals seeking to exploit you, and you did not give your consent for them
to use your personal information, you can lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator at the
The Act covers various aspects of the Department of Justice by sending an email to: complaints.IR@justice.gov.za. For general enquiries,
capturing, storing and disposing of personal email: inforeg@justice.gov.za.
information:
1. Accountability
2. The capturing, processing and storing of
information
3. The purpose of gathering the information
4. The responsible disposal of information.

For any entity to capture information, they
must obtain the person’s consent. They may
not capture and store information that’s
not relevant – for example, if they need
the child’s date of birth, they shouldn’t
ask for the child’s blood type, height and
weight unless there’s a reason for it. The
information captured must be securely
stored and may not be shared with third
parties. And then, once the information is

Education | August 2021 | 2