Call For Controls On School Fingerprinting

[Shinobi]

Liz Ford
Monday June 4, 2007
EducationGuardian.co.uk

The government was criticised today for not setting clear guidelines for fingerprinting pupils after figures showed that nearly 300 schools in England were using some form of biometric system.

A survey of local education authorities, conducted by the Liberal Democrats, found at least 285 schools were now fingerprinting their pupils for registration, using the library or buying school meals.

The Lib Dems claim that only a quarter of LEAs had details about the use of fingerprinting in their schools and the government has no idea how many children were having their details stored.

The party's concerns go back to March, when in questions to ministers in the House of Lords, the Lib Dem education spokeswoman Lady Walmsley was among several peers to express concerns about how many schools were operating biometric technologies.

She added that some children were "being victimised" or sent to the back of the lunch queue if they did not have the cards.

The party also claimed that education authorities did not know if parental consent had been obtained in four-fifths of the schools that collected fingerprinting. The survey found that of the 285 schools, 48 had asked for parental consent, 12 had not and 225 had no information on whether consent had been obtained.

Schools using fingerprinting were found in the constituency of the education secretary, Alan Johnson, as well as those of the environment minister, David Miliband, and the deputy prime minister, John Prescott.

The Lib Dems are now urging parents to check whether their children are being fingerprinted and to write to the government demanding strict regulations for the use of biometric technology in schools.

"These figures confirm an extremely worrying situation where schools are fingerprinting pupils without any guidance on whether it is legal to do so," said the party's education spokeswoman, Sarah Teather.

"Insecure school computers holding precious unique personal information are a gift to identity thieves."

She added: "An awful lot of people are washing their hands of responsibility while this practice spreads unregulated."

The Lib Dems are calling for the government to release data on how many schools are operating biometric technologies, statutory regulations requiring parental consent to be acquired before pupils' prints can be taken and stored, proper measures to keep data secure, rules as to who can access data and for what purposes and a guarantee that data will be destroyed when a pupil leaves school.

In January, the education minister, Jim Knight, said the government was working with Becta and the office of the information commissioner to look at updating guidance on the use of biometric technologies.

None has been published so far, although a spokesperson for Becta told EducationGuardian.co.uk that the guidance would be released shortly.

The Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland has also tabled a Commons motion, signed by 84 MPs, urging the government to conduct a "full and open" consultation on the issue.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/st...2095058,00.html

[Shinobi]

285 schools 'fingerprint children'

Almost 300 schools are regularly fingerprinting pupils, the Liberal Democrats have claimed.

Following a poll of Local Education Authorities (LEAs), the party claims that 285 schools said they used fingerprinting as a means of monitoring pupils.

Those schools also revealed they stored biometric details of their pupils and the Lib Dems suggest the real number of schools conducting fingerprint checks could be much higher.

The Department for Education (DfES) has dismissed the claims as "scaremongering" and insisted the government's policy of allowing individual schools to choose their own policy is adequate.

Lib Dem education spokeswoman Sarah Teather said the figures confirmed "an extremely worrying situation where schools are fingerprinting pupils without any guidance on whether it is legal to do so".

"Insecure school computers holding precious unique personal information are a gift to identity thieves," she said.

Among those schools to confirm pupil fingerprinting are institutions in education secretary Alan Johnson's Hull constituency and Ms Teather accused him of allowing the procedure to happen "right under [his] nose" without taking any action.

"An awful lot of people are washing their hands of responsibility while this practice spreads unregulated," Ms Teather said.

A spokesman for the DfES said the government would shortly be issuing guidance about taking, storing and disposing of data such as biometric data.

"This is scaremongering," he said.

"Schools are well used to holding personal data about pupils and they do so working within the Data Protection Act."

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/news/285-schoo...n-18167969.html