Privacy statement

The Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd (ABN 19 004 398 145) (“ACER”) is administering the Programme for International Student Association (PISA) on behalf of the Commonwealth Department of Education and State and Territory Departments of Education.

PISA is led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and is one of the international assessments in Australia’s National Assessment Programme which schools are required to participate in but is not part of your child’s curriculum. PISA is a benchmarking assessment and aims to:

• measure how well 15-year-old students are prepared to use the skills and knowledge in science, reading and mathematics to meet real-life challenges
• provide important information to monitor system-level achievement, inform educational policy and understand the contexts in which students learn best
• assist in the evaluation of progress towards the educational goals for young Australians and the National Education Agreement outcome that Australian students excel by international standards

Your child’s school is participating in PISA.

Personal information

As a result of ACER administering the PISA, ACER will collect some personal information of your child. Personal information is that information or opinion which tends to identify a particular individual, such as name and date of birth.

ACER will only collect, store, use and disclose personal information collected in the course of administration of the PISA for the purpose of administering and implementing the PISA (“the Purpose”).

If individuals do not provide their personal information the only consequence is that they may not be able to participate in the PISA and assist ACER with the Purpose.

Sensitive information and CONSENT to use and disclose

Personal information also includes Sensitive information which, in the context of PISA, may include health, for reasonable adjustments to assessment conditions if required, and may give an indication of participating students’ religious or ethnic affiliations by collecting school names.

By participating in PISA, participating students and their parents or guardians CONSENT to ACER collecting, using, storing and disclosing your child’s sensitive information as specified in this Privacy Statement.

Disclosure of your personal information (including Sensitive information)

ACER may disclose your child’s personal information (including sensitive information) to:

• ACER employed Test Administrators will assist ACER in pursuing the Purpose; and
• where ACER is required to do so by law to government agencies, or individuals appointed by government, responsible for investigating and resolving disputes or complaints connected with the Purpose.

For the sake of transparency, otherwise than specified above, ACER de-identifies information that needs to be disclosed for the Purpose or in pursuit of the Aims. This de-identified information will be disclosed to:

• government education departments, education institutions and the OECD which have a stake in PISA; and
• Westat, the international contractor for the OECD, which conducts data analysis of the PISA data.

For your information, the OECD privacy policy may be located at https://www.oecd.org/privacy/ and Westat’s privacy policy may be located at https://www.westat.com/privacy-policy/;

Transfer of personal information outside of Australia

ACER will not transfer personal information outside of Australia, only de-identified information.

If students, parents or guardians do not wish to give the consent contained in this privacy statement or have queries concerning the same, they can use the contact details set out in ACER’s privacy policy detailed below.

Your rights

Under the Australian Privacy Act 1988, individuals have the right to:

1. inspect their personal information;
2. request amendment of their personal information; and
3. make a complaint in respect of a breach of their privacy.

To exercise any or all of the above rights please review ACER’s privacy policy locatable at: http://www.acer.edu.au/privacy which sets out the processes of how that may be attended to.