Our daughter's school has asked for each child's PPS no as they want to call the roll electronically - does every child automatically have one? The form that came home seems to assume that each child already has a pps number that the parents should know but I thought you only got one/needed one when you start work. I certainly don't recall getting one for any of my children - do I have to get on to the tax office to get one? Thanks.
Children's PPS numbers
- Thread starter orka
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Every child is allocated a PPSN number at birth. Bring the form to your local social welfare office adn they will look up the numbers for you. Or ring them, they may give them over the phone. The tax office has nothing to do with issuing of PPSns any more.
They gave me them out over the phone
Dept is called Identity or something
http://www.welfare.ie/contact/index.html
Dept is called Identity or something
http://www.welfare.ie/contact/index.html
I think I would question the schools need to have this number; there's more than enough data stored electronically as it is. What protections are they going to provide, what security do they have, what access will you be allowed to correct records etc.,
Open to correction, but I'm pretty sure schools are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
Open to correction, but I'm pretty sure schools are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
What exactly do you mean? Are you suggesting that providing the school with the PPSN gives the school access to whatever information is held under that number?
They have already started to test national school children (spelling etc on the QT) and official tests are coming soon, so if the PPS number is recorded against the tests they will follow you all your life.
Towger
Just curious - how does this work? How do they actually call the roll? Do they have swipe cards or something?
I can't think of any system that would actually require a PPS number. They really just need a unique number to identify each student. They could simply give a number to each student, starting at 1.
I think you're thinking about Data Protection Act, rather than FOI. I'd guess that the Data Protection Commissioner would have a pretty strong view on whether the school actually needs the PPS number.
hhhhhhhhhh
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me too, are they getting rid of the massive role books
I'm curious too and I'll post when we find out. The school is definitely getting very high-tech - we got a note home yesterday saying that children's thumbprints will be scanned to allow access to the library!
err wouldn't spelling tests be a normal part of school life? I'd be pretty worried if schools didn't do this.
I'd imagine that they are not not actually "calling" the roll electronically, but recording attendance electronically for future inspection of students' attendance. The PPSN need is probably linked to the child's department of education records. Can't see any problem with that ...the PPSN is THE unigue national number nowadays, being quoted on everything from tax statements to planning permissions to driving licences. Big Brother IS watching us!
I believe the issue Towger is highlighting is not so much the testing, as the recording of test results by PPS number, with the possible impact that your test results stay on your record for life.