"If I had to make a choice, to choose the government without the press or to have the press but without the government, I will select the latter without hesitation."Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
"I read the news today, oh boy... A crowd of people turned away, But I just had to look"The Beatles
This page brings together the most up to date news and ongoing features of this campaign. Thank you for your support!
Specific information for journalists will appear here regularly. We can supply further details of any story that is of interest, and we also have a number of exclusives available to major news outlets. Contact us here
BACKGROUND
Note that although this story dates back to 2002, and you may have covered it then, the issue has a new lease of life in 2006 as parents finally make a concerted stand. Leading QCs and barristers have been consulted, so there is fresh legal opinion, in September 2006 the DfES changed their official stance and the Information Commissioner is also reviewing his opinion on the matter.
Manufacturers' claims that the systems cannot be hacked, taken by teachers at face value, have been challenged by respected data security experts. The Times Educational Supplement broke news of a direct connection between one school fingerprint firm and the Guantanamo Bay interrogators. As news of the controversy spreads, protests have been taking place outside schools. We expect the story to reach the tipping point and make national front page headlines by the end of the year.
The notion of a 'hearts and minds' campaign targeting children as young as three to soften them up for initiatives like ID cards is one that could cause considerable political fallout if brought to public attention. As of October 2006, one of the UK's leading opposition parties has taken on a full-time researcher to work specifically on the issue of school fingerprinting.
The story is also a major embarrassment for Education Minister Alan Johnson, a contender to replace Tony Blair, whose department has funded and yet refused to accept responsibility for the fingerprinting of nearly a million PRIMARY school children without the consent or in many cases knowledge of their parents, many of whom are now discovering this years after the event. In most cases the children were led to believe that being fingerprinted and photographed was a game and that therefore there was no need to inform their parents.
CHILDREN'S BIOMETRICS QUESTIONED IN PARLIAMENT
Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson, recently asked in June this year
"To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the collection by schools of pupils' personal data, with particular reference to fingerprints."(no.82201), Beverly Hughes referred her back to an answer given to Nick Gibbs, (Cons) Shadow Schools Minister, by Jaquie Smith (Lab) in February this year:
"In collecting data of this type the school is likely to rely on the broad powers contained in paragraph 3 of Schedule 1 of the Education Act 2002. This enables a governing body to do anything which appears to them to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of, or in connection with the conduct of the school."
Please click link above to see full answer given by and the detailed question initially asked by Nick Gibbs which raises some valid issues surrounding biometrics in schools.
DfES IMPLIES SCHOOLS CAN FINGERPRINT WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT
The latest position the DfES are taking on consent was reported in the Register:
In a nutshell, if you're 3 years old in a nursery you ARE mature enough to consent to be fingerprinted and photographed, but in the sixth form you're NOT mature enough to opt out! That's what the students at Edgbarrow school in Crowthorne have been told by their deputy head. They were told they need to supply a letter from their parents if they didn't want their fingerprints taken.
COUNCIL AXES CONTROVERSIAL WEB PAGE
Within 12 hours of LTKA highlighting a page on the Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council entitled "Tips For Fingerprinting Children", the page was hastily deleted and the menus on the site rewritten. Surely if Dudley have nothing to hide about what they are doing, they should have nothing to fear?
The page that was pulled is cached on the official Internet Archive:
Two schools, in Manchester and Warwickshire, threatened LTKA with legal action after we listed them as users of Junior Librarian (in each case they weren't using the optional fingerprinting module). Looks like head teachers are slowly getting the message that fingerprinting children without asking parents is wrong.
FILMING IN SCHOOLS WITH VERICOOL ('cashless' catering and registration)
We've just learned that schools require permission from the manufacturers of the Vericool fingerprinting system in order to allow filming of children using it on their premises. We feel this is outrageous since schools do not have the courtesy to ask permission from parents to fingerprint our children in the first place.
BIOMETRICS IS BIG BUSINESS
The manufacturer of Junior Librarian and Eclipse, Micro Librarian Systems is now worth £8 million, and say "The size of the UK market means there remains significant opportunity for growth."
OUR POLL attracted more than 1400 votes over the summer, when most parents obviously are away. 1345 people voted against schools fingerprinting without asking parents (94%) 80 in favour (6%). And without significant mainstream coverage we've had more than 15,000 unique visitors in the same period.
TEACHING UNION'S STATMENT
A spokeswoman for the National Union of Teachers said on Thursday Sept 14th: "Fingerprinting has to be done in consultation with parents and teachers and not imposed. By consultation, we are talking about proper consultation, giving parents time to respond, not installing the machines and then asking parents."
CONTACTING MPs
We are currently urging as many people as possible to contact their MP about schools fingerprinting without explicit parental permission - see http://www.writetothem.com/ for details of your MP, MEPs, councillors, etc.
We are campaigning for the widespread use of biometrics in UK schools to be debated in Parliament, strictly regulated and closely monitored, with statutory requirements for explicit informed parental consent where children's biometrics are taken
