By Andy McCue, 17 July 2006 15:15
NEWS
A secondary school in Berkshire is set to trial biometric fingerprint scanning technology to keep track of pupils entering and leaving its premises and cut truancy rates.
Sixth form students at Edgbarrow school in the town of Crowthorne will have their fingerprints digitally scanned and stored in a database in time for the start of the new school year this September.
Students will not be initially forced to take part in the trial, which will last a year, according to a report in The Guardian
The students will have to place their thumb in a fingerprint scanner whenever they enter or leave the school premises.
According to the paper some students are opposed to the plans, claiming that it will infringe their human rights but Edgbarrow headteacher Robert Elsey said the school will be seeking views of parents as well.
He told The Guardian: "All our sixth formers are being invited to take part in the pilot scheme but there is no compulsion to do so. We have spoken to students and received a positive response regarding the new scheme."
No-one at Edgbarrow School was today available for comment.
A similar trial took place last year at St Andrews College in Dublin with a fingerprint scanning registration system that automatically sent a text message to parents if their child did not turn up at school. Staff could also more easily monitor attendance using a secure website.
Teachers at the school said the system freed up their time to deal with more important issues than taking the register.
Comments
There are 11 comments. Join the discussion
1. Chris Goodman
A non self supporting student of any age has the primary obligation to attend and study. A student does not have a "human" or any other form of "right" concerning attendance until that has been earned by successful completion of the course.
The only right in this instance is the right to choose whether to accept this harmless form of attendance registration or leave.
I can only assume any students who object are those who are not averse to taking time off from their study programme but do not want it known by parents or sponsors.
2. Jon Catt
Infringing their human rights... it's the usual crowd who moan that, because they don't want to be caught skipping class, or being anywhere else they shouldn't. If their parents bought them up with a little more discipline we wouldn't have half the anti-social behaivour problems we do. Half the couples I know should have to pass an examination before conception... but how would you police that?!! Maybe in the same way they're doing it for druggies, if they get pregnant while their still testing positive for drugs, they lose their benefits.
A reasonable security state benefits everyone who wants to enjoy their life.
3. anonymous
How exactly does it infringe pupils' human rights? Because teachers might know they're in the premises and rescue them from a fire?
4. Zakala
The students shouldn't be surprised at this - most schools have as more security than most businesses and some are verging on high security.
Whilst we want to protect our children and their teachers from those rare and disturbed people that might want to harm them, is the response really appropriate to the threat? Are we not in danger of making our children feel like prisoners? It hardly produces a conducive environment to learning.
5. Charles Smith
A mistaken belief that technology solves management problems. In my time at school teachers did their jobs properly and knew their pupils. They sure enough knew if anyone played hookey or if there were problems affecting the kid's attendance.
Now the proposal is to fingerprint our kids like criminals. Guilty until proven innocent.
Except in the case of identical twins the teachers should be able recognise individuals.
This fingerprinting is a negligent abuse of human rights which are so often whittled away by an increasingly authoritarian UK government.
6. Richard Davies
Do they have fingerprint scanners on fences as pupils jump over them to escape!!! i.e. they scan in and then jump the fence. RFID would be a better solution for many reasons and less intrusive as its not as personal as a fingerprint, but would store necessary info and be able to be detected anywhere within range of sensors which could be placed strategically around school grounds.
7. Simon
Another step down the road to accepting ubiquitous monitoring !
Are we in danger of bringing up a new generation with no concept of self control or self reliance ? And if so, where does that leave us - apart from circling the plughole of complete social collapse ?
8. anonymous
Of Course children have rights! If you are a grandparent you should be ashamed to be suggesting otherwise. All freedoms are precious. It seems to me that requiring children to first give fingerprints and then have to use them to register in and out of school at the very least sends a message to those children that "we do not trust you". Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence. If children absent themselves from school on a regular basis, then teachers and parents will soon catch on. The most important thing to discover in this case is WHY.
9. Hugh Bracey
At present most students (incl 6th formers) are required to sign in and out of school during the school day! Does this infringe their human rights.
Similarly, as far as I know, all secondary schhol require a photograph of the student for the files. Does this infringe their human rights?
If schools do not have tight security( including cctv cameras - another infringement of student -oops! -humanrights?) and an outsider gains access to the school premises and attacks a student then the "human rights" students would be the first to blame the school and, as a previous comment mentioned, would it be OK for school staff or firemen to risk their lives searching for a "missing" student even if that student was not on site having skived off!
10. Karen Challinor
Well I suppose it beats employing more people to actually supervise pupils or getting the teacher/pupil ratio a bit more in favour of the teacher.
And as long as the fingerprint records are completely secure, unavailable for use by any outside agency, used purely as an attendance recording device and are destroyed once the pupil leaves that school I have no worries on the civil liberties front.
Now if we can just solve little problems like superglue on the scanner so a pupil needs hopital treatment to release them from it or some inventive little soul investigating the fingerprint retaining properties of modelling clay in the arts class and ooooh say bathroom silicon sealant to create a small cottage industry registering pupils who fancy a day off, then we're set.
And those two scams were thought of in the first 10 seconds after reading the article, give me 10 minutes and I'll come up with an A4 sheet full of probable scams, they may not all work but I'll guarantee someone will try them all, and some will work.
Yet another example of taking people out of the loop and relying on technology. No wonder there are so many jobseekers.
11. anonymous
I would not want to give my fingerprint to sign in to a building, be it school or work. My fingerprint is mine to give or not give and I don't trust anyone to look after it, including its disposal when no longer needed. Look at todays exposure of a pot office branch, leaving personal details, including highly sensitive ones such as N.I. numbers and passport numbers, in a skip UN SHREDDED. No, the only people who can legitimately ask for my fingerprint are the police. Anyone else can go whistle!