Pupils are recruited to spy on us during our lessons and schools are being 'run like totalitarian regimes', say teachers



By Sarah Harris
PUBLISHED: 18:18 EST, 8 April 2012 | UPDATED: 20:06 EST, 8 April 2012
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Pupils are being ‘actively recruited’ by schools to spy on their teachers in the classroom, a union has warned.
They are being used as ‘management tools’ to carry out covert – and even open – surveillance of members of staff, it was claimed.
Chris Keates, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, condemned the practice as a ‘form of abuse’ of children.

Orwellian: Teachers have accused schools of recruiting children as spies


She told the union’s annual conference in Birmingham on Saturday that ‘debilitating’ monitoring ‘erodes teachers’ self-esteem and gnaws away at their professional confidence’.

She said: ‘Children and teachers are diminished and abused by the use of pupils as management tools to carry out surveillance on their teachers.
‘Schools are being run like totalitarian regimes where children are being actively recruited to spy and report on adults.’
Afterwards, Mrs Keates said she had been horrified to discover that secondary schools in some areas have been taking pupils out of lessons to put them through a form of ‘formalised Ofsted training’.


Stress: Schools are being run like totalitarian regimes putting strain on staff, according to a teachers' union chief

Pupils are trained in the methods used by real inspectors to assess whether teachers are good at their job. Ofsted is not involved in the practice, which has also been adopted by some academy chains.
TEACHERS ON DETENTION


‘Roman Emperor’ head-teachers are keeping their staff behind for hours after school in an effective ‘detention’.
The NASUWT union said that heads now have ‘breathtaking autonomy’ and are undermining teachers by forcing them to mark work on school premises until as late as 7pm.

General secretary Chris Keates said: ‘Roman Emperors were more accountable than head teachers in our schools.’


Mrs Keates revealed that some pupils are given forms to rate teachers as part of Student Voice – a movement which involves giving pupils a greater say in the running of their schools.
These forms tell students to list the ‘strengths’ of members of staff.
Other schools use questionnaires, which ask pupils to consider whether they are ‘treated fairly and equally’ by teachers.
They can tick boxes including ‘always’, ‘usually’, ‘occasionally’, ‘never’ and ‘not sure’ and complete ‘one star and a wish’.
This involves awarding a teacher ‘one star for something they are doing well’ and ‘one wish for something you would like them to do even better’.
Mrs Keates added: ‘We’ve had practices ranging from children sitting at the back of classrooms, watching teachers with check lists, to unacceptable covert practices where children have been identified before a lesson starts by management.
‘They’ve been given a form to fill in, with no consultation with the teacher at all that the practice is going on, and in fact it’s only being discovered when the teacher asks the child why they’re not concentrating on the work in hand.’

Pupils are recruited to spy on us during our lessons, say teachers | Mail Online