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A London school has installed almost 100 CCTV cameras to monitor pupils and teachers.
The surveillance system Classwatch covers all classrooms, the corridors, playgrounds and dining room at Stockwell Park High.
It was introduced to combat truancy, prevent vandalism, protect teachers from false allegations against them and deter intruders. The cameras also film lessons to monitor staff technique and expose poor teaching.
One hundred schools across Britain have introduced similar measures — but the average number of classrooms fitted with the technology in those cases is five.
Stockwell Park High has put two cameras in each of its 28 classrooms, plus an additional 40 cameras in other areas throughout the building. The system costs £60,000 a year to run.
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers said the school was taking the concept to an extreme and compared their approach to the totalitarian state portrayed in George Orwell's Big Brother.
Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the group, said: “Schools should not have to resort to technology to fight bullying and bad behaviour. CCTV can be useful to monitor outside areas and may help cut down on vandalism, but we have grave concerns about using it as panacea for all the problems a school faces.” Judette Tapper, headteacher at
Reader views (22)
excellent idea.i was brought up in a school that suffered badly from truancy(including myself),abuse to teachers,abuse to children(verbal)and consistant and unreprted bullying.This was not only my school but all the scools in the bourough and surrounding bourough's.I know people feel that we are in a nanny state.But something has to be done,and i know that if thaer had been these measures in place in our school,then the overall results would outweigh the reservations..i know it is not nice,but this unfortuanatly has to be done.
- Mike B, essex
A power hungry, insecure head teacher perhaps? A little dictator by the sounds of it. Sowing fear in the minds of the staff rather than the pupils seems to be the motivation. She wouldn't be out of place working for he Stasi. Does she have a camera in her office just in case a pupil goes ape in there? One wonders.
- Leon, east sussex
They certainly have been sold a pup! 60,000 a year to run for a system that was seriously out of date 5 years ago! 60,000 for the full system including 5 year all inclusive warranty would have been closer to the mark. The problem is with most of these 'High Resolution' analogue systems is that 1/3 Megapixel camera images compressed with a 200:1 compression will render the post incident playback images useless anyway.
- Robin Hughes, North Wooton Norfolk
We must face facts.
This isn't a society anymore.
It has no natural cohesion.
It is a loose association of divided individuals, resorting to selfish opportunism as their only means of survival. Even our minds are no longer the integral independent souls they were, we are internally fractured, almost schizophrenic in our uncertainty.
Every single act by our totalitarian masters (Government and Big business) has undermined natural human relationships. I don't know who to trust anymore. Can we even trust ourselves, or would we too succumb and say anything, or even do anything, to escape this continual mental torture. Maybe that's it, I need to be watched all day by faceless faces behind cameras as I cannot even trust myself to act sanely anymore. I am now a number, I was formerly a free man.
"Deeds though done still require time to be seen and heard, and yet they have done it themselves" Nietzsche
- Nick, leeds
It is time to step back and examine ourselves. They introduced "stab-proof" school uniforms in my borough recently.
Something is going very badly wrong in our society. It is a crisis of moral values.
- Danny, London
I am a teacher in a south London school. I have two remote cameras and a microphone recording me, in my classroom, all day long. We have WELL over 100 cameras in the building. This is nothing new, I think it just goes unreported. Wasteful and intrusive.
- Anonymous Teacher, London
"perhaps if New Labour had not insisted in building and merging HUGE schools, "
No - Jane, it was the Tories who started doing this when Margaret Thatcher was the Minister fro Education in the early 70's. Seems like you want to blame labour for everything wrong in society
- Keith Price, Luton, England
I often thought that CCTV cameras in schools would be an excellent investment. If parents could see and hear what their children were saying and doing It would change the situations in the classrooms. Once everyone thought that there was a God who was watching over everyone and to whom we would one day be accountable. Now many pupils believe that if they deny their behaviour enough times and make enough noise they are unaccountable. They are able to convince their parents that it was someone else's fault. Having CCTV cameras in the classrooms might persuade some teachers back to the classrooms. No one should be in the position of being 1 against 30 with only your strength of character to protect you.
- Joy Brodier, Reims France
perhaps if New Labour had not insisted in building and merging HUGE schools, despite all evidence that suggests smaller schools produce better behaviour and more community spirit - this measure might have been less necessary. They have gone against reason and common sense for "tick box" outcomes and this has not helped the current situation of outrageous behaviour amongst some children.
- Jane, london
WHAT???? £60,000 a year to run 100 CCTV cameras? Once installed, CCTV costs very little to run, not £600 per camera, per year. THIS IS CRAZY! Schools should be spending their budgets on education, not security. Let the kids have some privacy. No wonder they like wearing hoodies if this is what they are growing up with!
- Emma, London, UK
I have a friend who was at this school a while back when the head used just one camera on every floor. She would view the screens and yell down the mike 'walk on the left'. When my friend had difficulty and asked for the camera to be used to prove she wasn't where it was alleged she was, strangely there was no tape to be found!
I am not sure of the rules for monitoring teachers because they have changed, but how will cameras inform on poor teaching? You have to be in the classroom to see the whole scene, how children are responding.
This scheme is very dubious.
- Eric, South London
People, it's Stockwell Park High we're talking about here, not Eton, I'm just amazed that no one's actually stolen the cameras as yet.
- Bob, Cheam
As a recently retired Teacher I was always in favour of these cameras. Imagine if you could e-mail a video clip of the little darlings misbehaving to the Parents who quite often insist that their children deny any charges of misbehaviour. Some people have to recognise that feral children do exist who have no idea of how to behave.
- R Race, Ealing England
The Headteacher says her pupils are well behaved and hardworking! why then does she need a £60k a year surveillance system?
Couldn't they spend it on books?
- Kerry, Purley
100 cameras? Somebody has been sold a pup, and the tax-payer is picking up the tab. Nice job "cutting edge" techno company, way to go in your wealth redistribution programme. Divert all the cash you can away from fruity educators and needy aspiring students.
- Bloke, London
God - you can't even urinate in the corridors now without some guy watching you
- Keith Price, Luton, England
So kids grow up conditioned to having everything they do, every move they make, watched and monitored. Can anyone ever see when these cameras may actually not be required anymore? Isn't that what we should all be aiming for; a society that shouldn't depend on CCTV everywhere. And as we all know, CCTV doesn't stop incidents from taking place, just assists with the prosecution of incidents afterwards.
With all these liberal policies being brought in by the government, it is almost as if social breakdown is being encouraged to make people accept the presence of cameras everywhere.
CCTV cameras are the most glaring symbol of a broken society anyone could ever have!!! This is an admission of failure. Very sad. (I live in Stockwell too).
- Howard Beale, London
The whole trouble with this is it won't stop anyone being bullied or stabbed.It could help catch those who have done it afterwards.But they would have being caught anyway in a school enviroment.The money spent and 100 cameras plus equipment to montor them plus the service charges to keep them running must Be over 100k.Two teachers wages or 5 security guards.would make more sense
- David Smith, Croydon
Surely they need a couple of skyline windmills to power this lot.
- Paulb, London
This school should be spending £60.000 per year on books and other teaching materials rather than surveillance equipment. If the headteacher Ms.Judette Tapper cannot control her pupils or her staff then she should consider her position.In the first line of her 'Welcome to parents' statement on her websites she says: ' her pupils are harworking and well behaved....... '.
- Martin, London
Don't recall having much privacy when I was at schoool in the 60s and 70s anyway. If this reduces stabbings and bullying then can't see the problem. The important thing is that the recordings are only looked at if there is subsequently an incident i.e. it is not used as in Big Brother (a crucial difference).
- Alan, London
This is absolutely disgusting, a massive invasion of privacy for all concerned.
- Kelvin Ej Webster, Devon UK
