Campaigners crowdfund to challenge government over pupil nationality data

Campaigners have set up a crowdfunding campaign in order to take the Department for Education to the High Court following its decision to collect data on school pupil’s nationality and country of birth.

As reported by Schools Week, human rights charity Liberty will be representing Against Borders for Children, which will look at if the policy infringes the rights of pupil.

It has also been argued that collecting this data has no education purpose.

In order to cover legal costs, campaigners have launched a crowdfunding page and have so far reached £2,800 of their target of £3,500.

On the page, it states: “Our aim is to reverse the Department of Education’s (DfE) policy of collecting country of birth and nationality information on eight million children in England to help bring border controls into classrooms which was introduced in September 2016.

“We've been campaigning since last year to get this policy scrapped. Now, with the support of Liberty, we’re hoping to win this in court – but we need your support to cover legal costs.

“Collection of nationality and country of birth data is a toxic policy that has led to highly divisive and discriminatory collection practices such as asking only children assumed to be migrants to bring in passports and birth certificates.”