From the Telegraph yesterday:
Closed-circuit television cameras are to be installed in every classroom at a school for the first time in Britain in a development that has raised alarm among parents and teachers.
CCTV will operate throughout the new school, King’s Academy in Middlesbrough, when it opens in September. The cameras are intended to make it easier to monitor and control bad behaviour by pupils.
The school says they will also watch over expensive computer equipment and will assist staff by providing evidence to clear teachers if they are falsely accused of abuse or assault.
This last is to counter the fear among the teachers that the cameras will also be used to spy on them.
King’s is the latest of the Government’s trumpeted city academies, funded jointly by state and private money. It will specialise in business and enterprise. Although CCTV is used for security reasons around many schools, King’s is the first to use it throughout classrooms.
Manchester city council is now seeking funds to install cameras in five schools as part of a discipline crackdown. A CCTV network of 40 to 50 cameras, which would cover the average school, would cost about £16,000.
Not for the first time, my reaction to being told the cost of some surveillance kit is: that’s cheap. Soon, if they want it to be everywhere, and they do, it will be.
I’ve just heard someone involved in this being interviewed on Radio 5. In response to slightly hostile comments along the lines of ‘how would you feel about CCTV in your living room’ he took the line that people are used to it because it’s everywhere. Lovely.