"Zdravitas" postponed: The Ministry of Education issued a statement

A meeting of four representative unions of education and members of the Ministry was held in the Ministry of Education in connection with the Zdravitas project. The agreement is to stop Zdravitas at this moment, and in the meantime to prepare the public, for the Ministry of Education to prepare a presentation for the Association of Physical Education Teachers and the Union of Teachers, and for parents to get acquainted with its essence, said the president of the Education Union of Serbia, Valentina Ilić.

Addressing the teachers, the Ministry of Education reminds that "the reform of the program of the Physical and Health Education subject, starting from the 2017/2018 school year, introduced mandatory continuous monitoring of the physical development and motor skills of students".

They point out that this obligation existed before, and that teachers kept it in their pedagogic notebooks. The memo states that the goals of Zdravitas are multiple, among other things, achieving a better understanding of the importance of physical activity and improving motor skills in students, as well as achieving better cooperation between the family and the school.

"Acknowledging the concerns of a certain number of parents, the misunderstanding of the public, misinterpretations, interpretations and misinformation regarding the purpose of the information system "Zdravitas", the data entered into the system and their protection, the Ministry of Education postpones the launch of the user part of this portal, which was planned for December 2," it is said in the press release from this department.

It is estimated that certain steps will require more time and different approaches in explaining and presenting a modern, multi-functional instrument such as the "Zdravitas" portal, and in the coming period, more attention will be paid to informing parents, resolving doubts and demolishing misconceptions and conspiracy theories.

The next steps will be aligned with the demands of individual parents and will be additionally focused on a clearer argumentation of the use value of digitization and security, as well as the protection of personal data, primarily according to the target groups of teachers and parents of pupils.

Ministry of Education reminds the public and parents once again that the data entered into the "Zdravitas" information system are not health data of students, nor do they relate to their health status. Only the results of measurements prescribed by the program of Physical and Health Education are entered, based on which teachers monitor the physical development of students and the development of motor skills, which are the goals of physical education.

It is about the results that the student achieves when he runs, jumps, does sit-ups and the like. The body mass index is also entered, because it is important for monitoring and assessing the physical progress of students and their motor skills.

Based on all this, the teacher assesses what needs to be done further, that is, planned in the agenda, so that the students improve their physical development and motor skills. Only parents and the teacher can access individual data about the student.

Moreover, data is not shared with third parties. The sole owner of this information system, after all, like all other educational ones - My High School, Unique Information System in Education (JISP), esDnevnik, is the Ministry of Education.

All these information systems are located in the state Data Center, as well as other state records, and are maximally protected. As a reminder, the collection of information for the platform was originally supposed to be completed by November 8, but the deadline was moved to November 22.

As part of the notification on the extension of the deadline, the Ministry also published two letters, one intended for teachers and the other for parents, so that both of them would understand the intention and goal of this portal.

The Zdravitas portal, which is an electronic record keeping of students' achievements within the subject of physical and health education, has caused confusion among parents. Many wonder why their children's data is being used, while the Ministry of Education assures that everything is according to the law.