Guarantees of the rights of educational participants
Based on the cases analysed in the foregoing, it may be concluded that
the rights of educational participants are often infringed because the
institutions do not comply with safeguard measures which are the indispensable
prerequisites for the enforcement of educational rights described above.
The right of educational participants to receive information and the resulting
obligation of other participants to give information are indispensable
parts, and prerequisites for co-operation. Educational rights may only
be enforced fully with the co-operation of the stakeholders in a specially
structured community such as an educational institution.
The right to receive information is included as a general principle in
the Act on Public Education among the rights of educational participants.
Educational participants are in the position to exercise their own rights
properly if the necessary information is available to them. Therefore
it is essential that documents regulating school life, education and teaching
be available to students and parents.
| A parents' association
protested that the Codes of Conduct were not displayed in the school,
therefore students were not aware of its rules. The principal stated
that the Codes of Conduct are displayed in every classroom at the
beginning of each academic year and the class teachers are obliged
to explain them at the first class teacher (PSE) lesson of the academic
year. If the Codes of Conduct are amended, the class teacher will
inform the students accordingly. Based on the above, we did not
establish the infringement of rights in this case. (K-OJOG-231/2001.) |
Legislation often identified special rights for educational participants
to receive, and obligations to give, information. For some of them, the
supply of information is a condition of the validity of the school's decision.
Earlier, we described the cases in which a student legal relationship
was terminated because of the high number of unexcused lessons. If in
those cases the school failed to meet its notification obligation, we
established the infringement of educational rights. (K-OJOG-196/2001,
K-OJOG-254/2001, K-OJOG-269/2001)
In connection with the right of the parent to receive information, a question
was raised as to whether students were allowed to take in-class tests
home in order to enable the parents to check the aptitude of their children
and to assist in their more effective learning.
| A parent claimed that
in the school their child goes to, students are not allowed to take
tests home, parents are only allowed to inspect them during the
parents' evening. We informed the complainant that the Act on Public
Education resolves, on the one hand, among the rights of parents,
and on the other hand, among the responsibilities of teachers, that
the school offers detailed and substantial information of the student's
development and academic progress on a regular basis. In our opinion,
by allowing access to tests during the monthly parents' evenings,
the school meets its obligation to supply information. However,
in order for the parent to be able to make up for the shortcomings
of the student, this access may not mean the studying and examining
of the tests within the timeframe provided for at the premises of
the school. Access must necessarily include the possession of the
test, i.e. a copy thereof must be rendered available to the parent
upon their request and at their cost. (K-OJOG-544/2001.) |
The proper and legal keeping of documents recording the student's development
and academic progress are indispensable prerequisites for the enforcement
of the right to receive information since these documents represent a
key form of implementing the right in question. The legal keeping of documents
is a safeguard from another perspective as well.
Among the school's documents, the class diary is of key importance. Its
accurate keeping allows for the control of the fulfilment of each of the
student's obligations, e.g. the obligation to attend school, and the obligation
to study. In several cases, we investigated whether a particular decision
of the institution was reached in line with the entries in that diary.
In certain cases, complainants protested the authenticity of marks entered
in the diary.
| A parent protested the
inclusion of retroactively entered marks in the diary without the
knowledge of either the student or the parent, for the reasons and
grounds. The complainant attached a copy of the diary attested by
the principal, on the basis of which we saw that the teachers did
not keep the diary up to date. Since the findings substantiated
by the copies of the diary were denied by the principal, we did
not find the identification of an initiative practicable, therefore
we approached the local authority operator of the school with a
recommendation to control the lawfulness of the operation of the
public educational institution with a particular view to the regularity
of record-keeping and to take the necessary measures. The operator
accepted this recommendation. (K-OJOG-285/2001) |
Report books are another key document of school life. Their contents
must be in line with the diary, with a particular view to them being the
primary source of information to the parent on the contents of the diary.
| Parents protested that
the school failed to inform them properly through the report book
on the academic progress of their children because marks were entered
retroactively, at one time. According to the principal, the marks
were entered when they were granted - provided that the students
delivered their report books however, students often denied the
existence of their report books. Later, when the class teacher issued
a replacement report book for a particular student, that student
alternated the two report books thus misleading both the parents
and the teachers. When the original report book turned up, the principal
retroactively entered the marks that were only included in the diary
and in the replacement report book before. Thus the marks were indeed
entered in the original report book at one time, but they had already
been included in the replacement report book and the diary. Based
on the above, the infringement of educational rights could not be
established. (K-OJOG-304/2001) |
Compliance with the safeguarding legislative provisions described above
is indispensable for the enforcement of educational rights. However, even
in case of the utmost diligence of the institutions, the enforcement of
rights may be jeopardised by legislative shortcomings. Legislation does
not resolve the rules of keeping the diary satisfactorily, does not settle
the issue of the schooling of children of separated parents unambiguously
or the exact order in, and procedural rules to which, withdrawal from
one educational institution and enrolment in another educational institution
takes place. Our position is that some of the conflicts could be prevented
by including more straightforward and detailed provisions in the public
educational legislation within the scope of the keeping of documents.
We constantly receive applications putting safeguards in the spotlight
of our investigations. Therefore our Office launched a comprehensive investigation
in this subject. Along with this investigation, we collect any anomalies
resulting from legislative shortcomings on the basis of applications received
by our Office. Following the analysis of the findings of this comprehensive
investigation, it may become justified to propose the amendment of legislation
to the Minister of Education.
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