Province scraps $50-M student database

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This article was published 13/01/2025 (241 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba government has scrapped plans to create a centralized database for student registration, report cards and other information at a cost in excess of $50 million.

The Free Press has learned the initiative is not moving forward — unrelated to a series of recent cybersecurity incidents, although the Opposition Tories argue the shelved proposal, which was widely endorsed, would better protect school data.

The project, spearheaded by the Progressive Conservatives when they were in government, sought to create a one-stop-shop for student, parent, teacher and school-program information.

“If it wasn’t important, I wouldn’t have put my name to it,” said interim PC leader Wayne Ewasko, the education minister prior to the last election.

In the spring of 2023, the Tory government issued a request for proposals to combine the Education Department’s legacy data-collection system that operates with 38 separate entities operated at the school division level.

The auditor general’s office, 2019 education commission and Manitoba advocate for children and youth have all recommended the province develop a mega student-information system.

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Since the majority of Manitoba divisions currently pay for software by PowerSchool, their internal data was leaked when the technology company was hacked over the winter break.

Winnipeg’s Pembina Trails School Division, a recent victim of a different cyberattack that was flagged earlier in December, is restoring internal systems, including staff payment processes that continue to be disrupted.

The acting minister of education, a mother of three school-aged children, is among thousands of Manitobans who have been affected by recent events.

Tracy Schmidt said she sympathizes with other caregivers in the same situation and vowed to support school divisions. At the same time, she noted that no security system is guaranteed to fully shield data from bad actors.

“There is absolutely no evidence that one single system would have or could have prevented (the latest) unfortunate incident.”– Tracy Schmidt, acting minister of education

“There is absolutely no evidence that one single system would have or could have prevented (the latest) unfortunate incident,” she said, referring to the NDP’s decision to abandon its predecessor’s consolidation project.

The province has come up with a more efficient way to improve data collection than hiring a contractor to centralize it, Schmidt said, adding the price tag was estimated to be at least $50 million.

A new education dashboard that draws on existing resources is in the works, per government officials.

Ewasko accused the NDP of putting student and school staff information “at risk.”

The Tories did not widely advertise the school data-collection overhaul as a way to bolster cybersecurity, but a government description indicated it would be “secure” and “confidential.”

Families were also told they would be able to find class schedules and attendance, among other student data, more easily, while divisions were promised improved access to information, simplified workflows and faster response times to questions and concerns.

Those details were deleted from Manitoba Education’s website shortly after the October 2023 election.

Gustavo Valle, an information security director at Winnipeg’s Exchange Technology Services, which provides cybersecurity management services,warned against making premature assumptions about any cyberattack or placing blame until an official investigation has been completed.

“Regardless of the company size, budget or staff, breaches can occur and, at the end of the day, the ability to respond to and mitigate an incident is the key factor in minimizing the impact of a cyber event.”– Gustavo Valle, information security director at Winnipeg’s Exchange Technology Services

“Regardless of the company size, budget or staff, breaches can occur and, at the end of the day, the ability to respond to and mitigate an incident is the key factor in minimizing the impact of a cyber event,” he said.

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The Commission on Kindergarten to Grade 12 Education deemed a modernized data collection system a priority in its final report, for unrelated reasons.

Recommendation No. 71 of 75 called for an overhaul and the related adoption of lifelong student identification numbers to increase capacity for data collection, analysis and evaluation across the education sector.

The report, made public in 2021 after a year-long delay prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, described the initiative as an important step to allow partners to better collaborate on improving student achievement.

Its contents were overshadowed by debate on the commission’s call to amalgamate elected school boards into mega-regional boards made up of government appointees.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter

Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.

Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.

Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.