A quiet revolution is brewing in school WhatsApp groups across Kenya, and it has nothing to do with tuition fees. Parents are increasingly locking horns with school administrations over the handling of their children’s personal data, sparking a fierce debate that pits institutional tradition against modern privacy rights.

For decades, it was standard practice to pin exam results on notice boards, publish top achievers in newspapers, and splash photos of minors on school Facebook pages without a second thought. But the Data Protection Act has changed the rules of the game. The "So What?" is a legal minefield: schools that continue to treat student data as public information are now risking massive fines and lawsuits. Parents are waking up to the fact that their child’s digital footprint starts in kindergarten, and they want to control who sees it.

The End of the ‘Public’ Notice Board

The clash is driven by a fundamental shift in awareness. Parents argue that exposing a child’s academic struggles or location to the world is a safety risk and a violation of dignity. Schools, stuck in analog habits, argue that celebrating performance motivates students and attracts new admissions.

• The Consent Battle: Schools are now being forced to seek written consent before using any image of a minor. The "blanket waiver" signed at admission is being challenged in courts.
• The WhatsApp Leak: The common practice of teachers sharing class lists with phone numbers and grades in open WhatsApp groups is a direct violation of the law, yet it remains rampant.
• The Safety Angle: In an era of kidnappings and cyberbullying, parents are rightfully paranoid about having their children's faces and names associated with specific wealthy schools online.

A Cultural Shift

This friction is healthy but messy. It forces a conversation about the boundaries of a child’s privacy. Is a grade a private affair between the student, the teacher, and the parent, or is it a community statistic? The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) has already signaled that schools are low-hanging fruit for enforcement.

Principals are scrambling to appoint data processors, while parents are threatening to sue. The days of the innocent school newsletter are gone. In its place is a new reality where every photo is a potential liability and every exam list is a classified document.

The lesson for schools is simple: the child belongs to the parent, but the data belongs to the law.