A LOCAL board of education in western Japan has ignored an education ministry instruction and destroyed the original files of about 20,000 students, officials have admitted.

Among the files were those of three former students who won a case to have their confidential data made public last November.

The presiding judge at the Osaka High Court, Hironari Izutsu, said: “Disclosing such documents will not harm therelationship between teachers and students,” and nullified an earlier Kobe District Court ruling.

Six graduates of primary and middle schools in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, had filed a suit demanding that the board of education disclose the documents.

The Kobe court ruled last year that sections of school reports with more than the numerical evaluations of each student’s attainment should not be disclosed.