The ” Privacy Class” project is a project intended to be implemented in all secondary schools of the City of Skopje and represents the beginning of joint activities between the Directorate for the Protection of Personal Data and the City of Skopje. The project aims to bring the issues of personal data protection, recommendations for safe use of social networks, non-spreading of hate speech and the like closer to high school students.

The project is planned to cover all 21 secondary schools of the City of Skopje, and its beginning will be marked by the school bell on September 15. The activities within the project are entirely aimed at education, and the results should contribute to the suppression and prevention of misuse of personal data on the Internet, on social networks, as well as reducing the number of registered hate crimes.

The Directorate for Personal Data Protection continuously implements initiatives and projects to raise public awareness, especially among target groups in education. The main driving force behind the idea of starting such a project is undoubtedly the increasing number of received complaints about the misuse of personal data on social networks, for violation of privacy, as well as the statistics that speak in favor of the ignorance of privacy policies by children. parents, teachers, indicative use of hate speech, spreading falsehoods in cyberspace of different ages and nationalities, etc.

The analysis of the Directorate for Personal Data Protection showed that:

  • 46% of students claim that while using social networks they consult privacy policies, while 37% do so only sometimes;
  • 83% of parents believe that children should also be careful about their personal data;
  • Social networks scare parents the most, so 68% consider this to be the biggest threat;
  • 76% of parents believe that children are not sufficiently educated in the school they attend;

The national educational policy and strategy for the development of education de facto must follow the new development processes and needs arising from modern (ICT) living. On the other hand, the issue that is being addressed is no longer in itself an issue that needs to be solved institutionally, but for the same there is a need for systemic and adequate reforms and additions to the teaching content, with the aim of effective use of ICT in education, but and building a society without internet abuses, to respond at national level to the demands of competitiveness and connectivity imposed by global and European societies and the modernization of their educational systems.

It is more than necessary to introduce an urgent measure to effectively change and supplement the teaching content in the educational process and apply the concept of personal data protection and the right to privacy in teaching – this is actually the very idea of introducing the title “Privacy Lesson” in the lesson schedule – the topics should be worked out initially in class, because the right to privacy, the protection of personal data, as well as the safety of the Internet and the spread of hate speech are topics that affect the young population, pupils, students, teachers, and parents. This kind of initiative is in the direction of bringing the matter and the complexity of the topics closer to high school students, which will enable the education of more target groups in the educational process. Inspectors and educators from the Directorate for Personal Data Protection will hold lectures in all secondary schools, which will transfer knowledge to:

  • management in secondary schools in the City of Skopje (21 managers-directors,
  • 40 from the pedagogical-psychological sector – educators,
  • 1000 (classroom) teachers,
  • 80,000 students and their parents

On September 1st, 10,000 copies of the timetable, where the first hour in the timetable on Monday (the class hour) is marked as Privacy Hour, were widely distributed through the daily newspaper, thus symbolically announcing the beginning of this project.

In addition to the lectures, a special information corner with brochures, flyers, content, information on where to turn, how to act if their personal data is misused, etc. is planned in every high school.

And there are manuals and presentations

Videos

Training of coordinators from the “PRIVACY LESSON” project

Schools

*** The project is supported by: