The purpose of this privacy statement is to explain how Pourato, the Ministry’s resourcing and funding system for education providers – schools, kura, and early learning services – collects and uses personal information about teachers and students, and how we look after that information. 

What personal information is collected 

Pourato collects and uses teacher-level information and student-level information from other Ministry systems, to calculate funding for schools, kura and early learning services.  

For schools and kura, this can include personal information such as: 

• Teacher/student names 
• Teacher employee numbers 
• Student date of birth 
• Student National Student Number 
• Medical certificates 
• Learning Support application form 
• Student level of need. 

For early learning services, Pourato collects and stores provider contact details, including the name of the funding contact.  

We collect additional information from education providers when they voluntarily request or apply for on-demand or non-core funding, staffing, and other resources from the Ministry. This information supports the Ministry’s work in auditing, managing, and operating education resourcing, to ensure the responsible use of public money and equitable distribution of government resources. 

Why we collect your personal information 

Pourato calculates operational funding and staffing entitlements for education providers. The personal information shared with Pourato is used to ensure that schools, kura, and early learning services nationwide receive their entitled funding and that this funding is accurately calculated. 

Aggregated information from Pourato may be used for the purposes of educational research, statistics, monitoring, and reporting to Government and the public. This will be used and provided in a form that does not identify any individuals. 

How we collect your personal information  

Pourato does not collect teacher-level and student-level personal information directly from the individual concerned, but from other Ministry information systems, such as the Early Learning Information (ELI) Web, Funding Information Regulatory System Technology (FIRST), ENROL register of student enrolments and other parties (e.g. schools and Education Payroll Limited). 

All personal data imported into Pourato from other Ministry systems is shared digitally and securely. The process is automated and not dependent on any manual entry. 

How we keep your personal information safe 

Pourato is hosted on the Ministry’s security-certified Microsoft Azure cloud services platform, primarily in Australia. 

We take all reasonable steps to ensure the personal information we collect is protected against loss, unauthorised access and disclosure or any other misuse, including meeting the requirements prescribed by the New Zealand Government for secure handling, storage, and disposal of any protectively marked or security-classified information. 

We ensure that our third-party data processors can meet our privacy and security requirements. We are satisfied, for example, that Microsoft has adequate security and privacy safeguards in place to protect information it holds on our behalf. 

The system is subject to regular security maintenance and platform upgrades.  

Ministry access to personal information is strictly controlled and is restricted to Ministry-authorised users.  

Who we share your personal information with 

Pourato shares information with the Ministry’s internal data warehouse to support the Ministry’s analytics, forecasting and modelling work. There are controls in place to manage access to personal information. 

The Ministry may share Pourato information with other agencies or third parties where it is required or authorised to do so by law. 

How long we keep your personal information 

Pourato retains personal information in relation to core funding and staffing, in compliance with the requirements of the Public Records Act 2005. We retain personal information related to education service provider funding and staffing requests for a minimum of seven years after the request is processed.  

Your rights under the Privacy Act 2020 

You have the right to request access to information we hold about you and to request correction of that information if you think it is wrong. To request your information contact: pourato@education.govt.nz