London: The use of closed-circuit video cameras is creeping into classrooms in Britain and turning teachers into “lab rats”, according to a survey by the NASUWT union that found 8 per cent of teachers reporting CCTV had been installed inside their schools and observing their lessons.
Worryingly, while staff and pupil safety was the most widely-cited reason for the installation of CCTV, a small percentage of teachers said the footage was used to directly monitor their performance.
The majority of teachers with CCTV-equipped classrooms said they could not turn off the cameras, and that they were recorded constantly. Some 55 per cent said the recordings were monitored by head teachers and other senior management, and 41 per cent said it was used in judging staff.
One teacher said: “In my school it has been used specifically with newly-qualified teachers that the senior leadership team think are not performing well.”
Others reported that school management had viewed CCTV footage to justify disciplinary action.
“When I asked what my head of department was doing watching a colleague in this way, she said she was trying to catch him out,” one teacher responded to the survey.
Chris Keates, the general secretary of NASUWT, said teachers were already observed by Ofsted and other school inspectors and visitors. “Lab rats have more professional privacy,” she said.
The NASUWT conference in Birmingham is to debate a motion on Sunday arguing that teachers endure undue monitoring “beyond any reasonable justification”.
“The stories teachers recounted to us in the survey are a shocking catalogue of professional disrespect and unacceptable intrusion,” Keates said.
“No other professionals are subjected to such appalling treatment. No one should be subjected to the stress and pressure of being watched constantly. ”
