Data watchdog to probe claims of non-school staff’s access to pupil info

The Data Protection Commissioner is investigating the alleged ability of non-staff to access schools software and view confidential student information because of shared login codes.

Hundreds of second-level schools were contacted late last week by Serco Learning after the Department of Education alerted it that a parent reported his child had got access to a generic username and password for the programme at his school.

It was also claimed that he could use the same details to access the ePortal programme for other schools.