285 schools 'fingerprint children'
Fingerprinting in schools is increasingly common, according to the Lib Dems
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Monday, 04, Jun 2007 10:34
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."