ODI Fridays: Getting to grips with the National Pupil Database

The National Pupil Database monitors over 400 variables, covering every year of a child’s education from nursery to A-levels. Anyone who attended state schooling in England since 1997 is included; data is taken automatically from school systems and is never deleted. The data is currently used to support decision-making, statistical analysis, targeted funding, performance monitoring and educational research.The government now proposes to 'widen access' to the NPD, making information it contains available to a range of of organisations including commercial enterprises and the media. Can such personal data be treated as open data? Phil Booth, former national coordinator of NO2ID and co-director of TRUTH2POWER, and Terri Dowty, former director of Action on Rights for Children and also a director of TRUTH2POWER will introduce you to the database, what data is collected and why everyone needs to know how it operates.