新年が始まり、新しい学校やクラスで友達を楽しみにしている子どもたちもいる。個人情報保護法の影響で、学校や幼稚園でクラスリストが配布されないことが増えており、意見が分かれている。一部の学校では同意を得ればリストが作成されるが、漏洩を防ぐため配布されない場合もある。子供の名前や漢字を覚えるためにリストがあれば便利だという声もあり、友達の名前が思い出せないという悩みも。個人情報の取り扱いルールについて理解を深める必要がある。
A new year has begun. Some children may be looking forward to making new friends in a new school or class. In such cases, a class list can be helpful. It can help visualize and organize information such as “I’m in the same class as that friend” or “I’ll be studying with these kids this year,” for both parents and children. However, it seems that not distributing class rosters is becoming more common nowadays.
Unnoticed class lists. Is this the trigger for the application of the Personal Information Protection Law?
There was a discussion on the Mama Star community about class lists.
“Our school has never distributed them, so it might be the school’s policy. I’m not good at remembering my friends’ names, and I can’t even match their faces. But it’s okay.”
Recently, it seems that there is an increase in schools or nurseries that do not distribute class rosters that contain names or genders. While they were certainly present when the mothers were children… Come to think of it, class communication networks created for emergencies also seem to be less common nowadays. These are believed to be greatly influenced by the Personal Information Protection Law. Personal information refers to information that can identify individuals, such as names, birthdates, addresses, and photos.
“We don’t have them at home.” “My eldest son, who graduated from elementary school two years ago, has not attended school since enrollment.”
Reports of “no class lists” were also found in the comments section not recently, but quite a while ago. Since the Personal Information Protection Law has been enforced since 2005, it was already in place by the time the current children started attending school. Nowadays, in letters distributed by schools or kindergartens, consent is sometimes sought regarding the public disclosure of personal information.
Some schools have solid measures in place!
If consent is obtained, lists can be created, but reading the opinions received, it seems that not all schools or kindergartens provide lists. There were also quite a few people who said they “took the class roster home.” When all comments were tallied, the difference was very small (1 vote), with “yes” and “no” being almost equal in number.
“We have various classes. Some teachers list the members as ‘friends of year ○ class’ in the class communication at the beginning of the year, while others do not. There were also years when the vice principal said, ‘Do not include content that identifies individuals by name.’
As mentioned in this comment, it seems that opinions differ not only among schools and local governments but also depending on the teachers’ perspectives. Furthermore, there seem to be different styles other than the typical class list format, not just simple “yes” or “no.”
“Looking back now, I didn’t do that.” “There was a list of names in front of the classroom.”
“Not on paper. There is a dedicated delivery app.”
There were also opinions such as “distributing and collecting briefly for confirming the new class” and “not distributing and storing in the school locker throughout the year” to reduce information leakage. It seemed like there were several patterns in place for efforts to reduce information leaks. However, class rosters displayed for all students might be photographed by someone and shared on LINE. Schools and kindergartens may be anticipating this, but it can also be a tactic to say “we do not distribute.” Additionally, while there may not be class rosters, there were comments like “lists distributed to the PTA for nominating class representatives” or “learning other children’s names for the first time during individual interviews,” which seemed necessary. It may be difficult for schools and kindergartens to prevent information leaks as much as possible.
Reasons for wanting the distribution of class rosters. I can’t remember my friends’ names…
There may be few mothers who believe that class rosters should always be distributed like the poster. However, if possible, distributing a list with photos to a mother’s group would be convenient.
“I can’t remember my friends’ names. I think I can remember them if I hear them read in kanji a few times.”
If you don’t have a list at hand, you may end up spending a year without knowing who is in the class. Truly, recognizing the spellings of visually identifiable names is an important point to remember. It may be surprising to find out later that the name of a close friend, often featured in children’s stories, is actually written in rare kanji characters. It was also mentioned, “If I hear a name written in amazing kanji, I think ‘Is that kid?’ So, having a list would be great. I keep asking my son, ‘Who is that?'”, which can be tough if they keep saying ‘No!'”
Furthermore, it was added that “class rosters are important for people with few mom friends.” There is a benefit in being able to casually ask acquaintances from the same class if there are any uncertainties. Not knowing if there are mom friends in the class may cause some uneasiness. On the other hand, some people feel scared about personal information being exposed and do not want to distribute the list, showing that opinions vary on this issue. This is the trend of the times, but will class rosters still exist when children become parents in the future?
Author: Asako Suzuki Editor: Takashi Illustration: Ngimamu