Schoolchildren are not being GPS tracked, Education Ministry insists

● Parents complain about backpack tags

Devices that are being attached to students’ backpacks do not contain any GPS devices and are not traceable, the education ministry has said.

The ministry was reacting yesterday to complaints by a number of parents after the government launched the first phase of a tagging system meant to inform parents of when their children board and alight their school transport.

The device, known as a fob, is part of the free school transport scheme. The government had originally planned to appoint supervisors on every vehicle but later backtracked, saying it was opting for the fob system. The parents receive the information via a mobile app.

The government says the scheme has been introduced at one state college for now and a technical evaluation phase will follow. Eventually, the system will become more widespread.

The ministry has said the fob is attached to the backpack and an alert is sent when the student boards and disembarks from the school transport vehicle. Once the students disembark, there is no system tracking their whereabouts.

The ministry said the information is sent to the app by the vehicle, and not by the fob itself.

No personal data is stored on the fob. In fact, if the device is lost, there is no way of telling whom it belongs to.

When contacted earlier this week, one of the big school transport operators explained the system in similar terms to what the ministry said yesterday.

“This system will be implemented on all school transport, whereby a device will be installed on the vehicles themselves, and the students will have a form of badge that attaches itself to their bags, kind of like the tags found on clothes in shops,” the operator explained.

“When the student gets onto their school transport, the system will automatically register that that particular child has boarded the bus, and the parent would be able to get onto the available mobile application and see whether the child is on the school transport of not.”

Asked whether operators had been informed about this system beforehand, the operator said this was the case. In fact, it was part of the contract.

Asked if parents had been informed, the operator said the general public had been informed by the media. Parents were, however, not contacted directly about the tagging system by the government.

The operator said he believed the fob system to be temporary until real supervision is put in place.

Over 25,000 school children are making use of the free transport scheme as of the beginning of November. The government says the scheme has led to a decrease of over 6,000 cars on the roads.

The education ministry said yesterday that more detailed information can be found on www.schooltransport.edu.mt/faqs