Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, had a meeting with Zarko Obradovic, Minister of Education and Science, to address the issue of personal data processing under the so-called “Single Information System in Primary and Secondary Education in the Republic of Serbia”.

Commending the Minister for taking notice of warnings and for announcing a swift response to them in the form of urgent amendments to the Law on Basic Elements of the Education and Upbringing System as an example of constructive and responsible behaviour, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic also said the following:

“Introduction of the “Single Information System in Primary and Secondary Education in the Republic of Serbia” and reactions of parents dissatisfied with the lack of reliable answers to some open issues in connection with processing of pupils’ and parents’ personal data for that purpose directly resulted in my previous warnings and this meeting. The meeting has been successful.

However, I have to emphasize that this specific case we addressed on this occasion is certainly not the only one that merits serious attention. There are certainly many outstanding issues in connection with personal data processing outside the field of education as well.

In any case, every personal data processing has to comply with the same requirement. It is the following requirement stipulated under Article 42 of the Constitution – “personal data processing shall be regulated by the law”.

To put it simply, people from whom personal data are requested in any such situation have the right to know why, to whom, to what extent and for what purpose they give their personal data. And, of course, they have the right to know whether they must give the data or it depends on their free will. Answers to those questions must not be improvised; instead, they have to be regulated by the law.

In this specific situation, the requirement I mentioned was not complied with and it resulted in my warning. The Minister and his associates fully accepted the arguments presented to them. The Minister undertook to rectify the existing shortcomings by proposing proper amendments to the Law on Basic Elements of the Education and Upbringing System. Adoption of these amendments will be proposed in an urgent procedure, and the Minister believes that they could be endorsed by the National Assembly before the summer holiday season.”