CCTV in schools is open to misuse and is being used to spy on teachers. That is according to a teaching union after a survey of members.
Around 7,500 teachers responded to the NASUWT survey. Of teachers who reported CCTV in their classrooms, 89 per cent said they could not switch it off and 88pc said that it was constantly recording their lessons. Over half (55pc) said head teachers viewed the footage and 41pc said it was being used to find evidence to form negative views about staff. Teachers acknowledged CCTV could aid pupil and staff safety, but some felt it an invasion of their professional privacy. Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said: “Lab rats have more professional privacy. In some cases teachers reported having their private conversations filmed when the school was not in session. “The stories teachers recounted to us in the survey are a shocking catalogue of professional disrespect and unacceptable intrusion. No other professionals are subjected to such appalling treatment. No one should be subjected to the stress and pressure of being watched constantly. The NASUWT will support members in resisting such practices in schools where such abuse is taking place through all appropriate means, including industrial action.”
Comments from teachers included:
“CCTV is open to misuse by senior management”;
“I was disciplined for visiting another colleague’s classroom which had been recorded on tape”;
“I have seen senior staff members with my head of department looking at footage in the school office. 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”;
“CCTV has been used against staff to imply they are handling a situation incorrectly even though the CCTV has no sound”;
“In my school it has been used specifically with newly qualified teachers that the senior leadership team think are not performing well”;
“The senior management team have erased CCTV when they have been caught on camera being unprofessional”;
“The deputy head sent me an email during a maths lesson asking me to inform pupils that he was watching them on CCTV”.
Representatives at the NASUWT’s annual conference (Sunday) debated a motion condemning the excessive monitoring of teachers in schools as disempowering and adding to their stress and workload.
