| Greens MSPs are calling on the Executive to look into the use of a high-tech biometric ID system in schools to access libraries, following an alert from concerned parents.
Schools across the country have been named on a website dedicated to fighting the use of finger-printing in schools, with Brechin High on the list.
A spokesperson for the city council said, however, “Dundee City Council does not operate this system in any of its schools. It ran in some schools years ago, but was dropped. The scheme was analysed at the time, and it was decided not to progress with it.”
The Greens, who have led campaigning in the Parliament on civil liberties and the use of biometric data, believe children should be taught the importance of civil liberties.
Dundee-based Green MSP Shiona Baird said, “I think many parents will be deeply shocked to learn their children are being fingerprinted — apparently without their knowledge or consent in some cases — for something as simple as a library system.
“We should be encouraging children to understand and value their civil liberties, but instead there is a danger we will be teaching the next generation to surrender them without question.
“At the very minimum I would want an assurance that no school will go ahead with this system without a full and open debate with parents, and no child should be fingerprinted without their parents’ or guardians’ consent.”
A row broke out in 2002 over the use of fingerprinting at the city’s Lawside Academy, when the council was accused of running the scheme without consultation.
In a change to the old system of ID cards that the council said had proved inefficient, pupils’ thumbprints were scanned when they borrowed and returned library books.
However, a scheme run by Stirling Council last year, in which children used the high-tech system to buy school meals, proved a success, creating the possibility that lunch money could soon become a thing of the past. |
