NHRC sends recommendation on NEIS to the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (05-17-2003)
The National Human Rights Commission sent its resolution on the National Education Information System (NEIS) to the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development on May 17. This measure was taken following a decision made by the NHRC Plenary Committee on May 12. The NHRC recommendations stated in the resolution sent to the ministry is as follows:
1. Under the existing educational administration system, CS, necessary information about students and parents for guidance is collected and managed directly by principals on separate school servers in each 10,870 elementary, middle, and high schools in the country. The NEIS system enables direct database management by 16 city and provincial offices of education using a high-speed communications network. Therefore, the NHRC concluded it was necessary to closely examine the following points: △ if the NEIS system limits basic rights △if it does limit basic rights, further investigation of constitutional grounds for limitation of basic rights △ even if there is a constitutional basis for limiting basic rights, the need to examine whether the goal of the system is clear, if potential damage will be minimized, if the legal benefits are balanced, appropriateness of the means, and appropriateness of the method.
2. The NHRC examined the question of whether NEIS violates human rights based on Article 10 (right to pursue happiness, Article 17 (freedom of privacy and secrecy), Article 31 (right and duty to receive an education), and Article 37 (respect of freedoms and rights of citizens) of the Constitution; Article 12 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights; Article 17 of the International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights; Article 16 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child; OECD Guidelines on the International Circulation of Private Data and Protection of Privacy (개인 데이터의 국제 유통과 프라이버시 보호에 관한 가이드라인); UN Guidelines for Regulations on Electronic Personal Information; and the Act on the Protection of Personal Information Maintained by Public Agencies.
3. The NHRC comprehensively considered if NEIS violated the freedom of privacy and secrecy, the legal grounds for NEIS, the background of NEIS development, if the area of personnel administration for public educational officials among the 27 areas of NEIS violated human rights, and if there could be a problem arousing from excluding information in the area of school management/entering a school of higher grade or education and admission/health care. The NHRC decided to recommend the ministry of education and human resources development amend ‘regulations on personnel administration of public educational officials (교육공무원 인사기록 및 인사 사무처리 규칙) by excluding the area of school management/further education and admission/health care among the 27 areas of NEIS because it could potentially violate human rights such as the right to privacy; maintain the existing CS system in school management/further education and admission/health care area and improving the security of the CS; and exclude items in the separate paper of instructor personnel records (교원인사 기록 중 별지 목록 기재 항목)that could potentially violate human rights such as the right to privacy.
