Posted on 03/04/2009 12:51:28 PM PST by BGHater
Schools are installing CCTV cameras and microphones in classrooms to spy on teachers.
The surveillance technology is being used to check that pupils are being taught well and to expose poor teachers.
But the approach has provoked fury among teaching unions, who say the tactics smack of Big Brother.
Under the system, special training classrooms have been equipped with 360-degree cameras and five microphones.
Some cameras are so powerful they can pick up what pupils are writing in their exercise books or what's on their computer screens.
Teachers can be given live feedback from senior staff through a concealed earpiece.
The best lessons will be put on to a DVD and used as a training tool for other staff.
Although taking part in the monitoring sessions is voluntary, school heads say they expect the majority of their staff to participate.
But union officials fear reluctant teachers will be compelled to take part.
They claim the filmed lessons could be used to get around existing agreements on how often senior teachers can sit in during lessons.
Under national guidelines, teachers are only allowed to be monitored for three hours a year.
Dr Mary Bousted, head of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said she had 'major reservations' about the use of the technology to monitor staff.
'It does seem a bit Big Brotherish,' she said. 'Although schools say that the process is voluntary, it would be quite difficult to stand up and say no if other people are agreeing to it.'
Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union, said: 'We do not support the use of cameras in this way and see no professional security or educational benefits to such systems.'
Dozens of schools around the country are employing the scheme, including Harrop Fold School in Worsley, Manchester.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Comrad, do you hear me? Come in Comrad...ahhh, I see you are teaching on Lennon and Marx. Keep up zee good work.
I would have hated that. It’s stressful enough to be in front of 20 or 30 teenagers, but to know I was being watched constantly would have made me really crazy.
That’s to see if the teacher says anything positive about Christianity or normal marriage, or anything negative about the Cult of Death from the middle east.
England was once a great and proud nation! A beacon of light for the rest of Western Civilization.
No more. They aren’t even a shadow of what they used to be.
ping
Under national guidelines, teachers are only allowed to be monitored for three hours a year.
I don't like the cameras in class, but the idea that a teacher is only allowed to be supervised only three hours per year is pretty stupid. I had a couple in high school who could have used constant supervision.
First day, walk in and unplug the damn thing.
They know damn well there's no way to tell that is happening and I dare any "expert" to prove that it can happen.
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