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ig brother바카라�s not just watching, but texting too; and playing out his Orwellian fantasies in no less a place than your child바카라�s school. As schools opened after the summer break, a few thousand students found their identity cards turning into tracking devices that monitor and report every move they make to parents. As the card, now fitted with a microchip, arrives at the school gates, a message is sent out: 바카라�Your ward has reached school바카라�. The day ends with a message announcing his departure. That바카라�s not all: The new 바카라�R-Fi바카라� (radio frequency) monitoring system being aggressively marketed to schools can be customised to keep parents in the loop about everything from attendance at lessons, exam scores, even when and why a child has been punished.

Fifteen schools across the country have already bought the R-Fi system within a month of its launch by the Nagpur-based manufacturer, Pinnacle Teleservices, and the company expects to sign up 50 by the end of the year. At Rs 600-1,000 per child per annum, this doesn바카라�t come cheap, yet there are takers. Why, when there are no statistics whatsoever to show a growing trend of children not reaching school or home safely? 

Parents want reassurance, say some schools, especially in the case of students who walk to school, or take public transport. At the New Apostolic English High School, Nagpur, principal Vinita Bower says: 바카라�We don바카라�t provide transport to children, so R-Fi will help us assure parents their children are safe.바카라� Some parents do seem to buy the safety and security argument. Sushma Rani, whose son Ashwin is a student of Vishal Bharti School in Delhi, which has bought the service, says happily, 바카라�We바카라�ll always know whether our children have reached safe and sound바카라�.

It바카라�s clear, though, that safety is not the only spur. R.G. Yevale, founder-president of Pune바카라�s Vidyadhan Education Society, in whose schools the system has been installed, says: 바카라�In a competitive environment, this gives us an opportunity to advertise ourselves as a hi-tech institute.바카라� This is a belief echoed by Jalandhar-based Lovely Professional Institutions, which has devised its own biometric system to track its 24,000 students. Many schools Outlook spoke to agreed that surveillance was a matter of pride바카라�just like snagging a battery of cameras.

On the other hand, some educationists believe devices such as R-Fi and GPS may only end up generating a false sense of security바카라�and fuelling, as educationist Abha Adams puts it, 바카라�an environment of fear바카라�. She argues: 바카라�Schools are gated communities and children are shadowed pretty closely through the day so there is really no need to feel insecure about your child.바카라� As for parents, she says, 바카라�It바카라�s a very small minority that are looking for such antiseptic safety. What every parent wants is a learning experience for their child and no amount of hi-fi sci-fi is going to compensate for that.바카라�

Some educationists say the increasing desire to use electronic surveillance is a reaction to unwieldy student numbers. Manju Bharat Ram, chairperson of The Shri Ram Schools in Delhi, says, 바카라�We have 11 students to a teacher, so we don바카라�t need to track them. Moreover, tracking or tagging goes against the trust that you, as a parent, put in the school, and in your child. I don바카라�t think any child would like to be monitored that way.바카라�

Do children fully grasp the meaning of being put under the scanner? Sushma바카라�s son, Ashwin, soon to enter the world of R-Fi, says, 바카라�My parents will feel better when they know I have reached school.... But then, my parents will also be smsed immediately about every little act of misbehaviour.바카라�

Mysore-based student counsellor Ruchika G. Naidu doesn바카라�t like the sound of that. 바카라�When children realise they are being spied on, they don바카라�t get the opportunity to express themselves freely and naturally,바카라� she says. Perhaps, it would do well to ask: Do those who invest in surveillance really want them to?