Electronic technology now offers unprecedented ways to survey students' behaviour and movements. This programme looks at some of them. In one secondary school, over 100 CCTV cameras keep watch over the students in the classrooms, corridors and playground. In some pre-school nurseries, parents have password-protected visual access to their children via webcam. Another secondary school has added a tool to its VLE by which parents can keep tabs on their children's homework assignments, timetables and test results. A third secondary school uses fingerprint recognition technology for student registration. Supposedly secure, it turns out that a computer expert can quite easily hack into the information. So, is all this surveillance technology a positive thing?

Video Series: School Matters
Release Date 2007