We Have Your Number

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A plan in England to be announced tomorrow will make the old threat of “it’s on your personal record” a reality. All 14 year olds in England will have their personal details and exam results added to an electronic database for the rest of their life.

The database will perform as a Big Brother looking over their shoulder as colleges and employers will be able to access the records online to check their prospective students and employees out.

The new plan will give the children a personal number that will remain theirs for live. Called the unique learner number it’s the governments attempt to computerise personal records. It has nothing though to do with the national identity cards.

Teachers’ leaders, parents groups, opposition MPs and human rights campaigners met last night to discuss if this Big Brother approach will infringe on the basic personal security of these teenagers.

The database will store a “tamper-proof CV” will be called MIAP. England at this time gives each student in school an unique pupil number but this one will be different as it will remain active for the employable lifetime of the student instead of being destroyed after a pupil leaves school.

Margaret Morrisey, of the National Association of Parent Teacher Associations, said that plans for MIAP, which will be compulsory for all 14-year-olds throughout the UK, would fill parents with horror.

“I suspect there will not be more than two parents in the land who would have faith in the Government that this information will be secure,” she said.

There are very legitimate fears for this process as the government doesn’t have the best track record when dealing with databases. Last year alone 25 million people deal with the loss of two computer discs that contained banking and personal details.

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