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SCHOOL

Swedish schoolkids under surveillance

The number of Swedish schools using security cameras to keep an eye on their pupils has skyrocketed in recent years.

Published: 7 August 2008 08:12 CEST
Swedish schoolkids under surveillance

In a survey conducted by the Swedish Data Inspection Board (Datainspektionen) earlier this year, 20 percent of schools said they had cameras in place on their premises. Three years ago this figure was just eight percent.

Officials in Västra Götaland County in the west of the country have issued more permits for outdoor cameras in the first seven months of this year than for the whole of 2007, Sveriges Radio reports.

Ten years ago, Tensta Gymnasium in Stockholm was the only school in the country with security cameras. Last year alone, however, 104 schools schools received permission to begin using the technology.

In may cases schools are only permitted to film outdoors during the evening and night to help counteract vandalism.

Schools do need to seek approval for the use of cameras inside school buildings, although they are legally required to put up signs alerting pupils to the fact that there are surveillance cameras in operation.

SCHOOL

Bavaria plans 100 million rapid Covid tests to allow all pupils to return to school

In the southern state of Bavaria, schools have been promised 100 million self-tests starting next week so that more children can start being taught in person again. But teachers say the test strategy isn't being implemented properly.

Published: 12 March 2021 17:12 CET
Bavaria plans 100 million rapid Covid tests to allow all pupils to return to school
Children in the classroom in Bavaria. Photo:Matthias Balk/DPA

State leaders Markus Söder said on Friday that the first 11 million of the DIY tests had already arrived and would now be distributed through the state.

“It’s no good in the long run if the testing for the school is outside the school,” Söder told broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) during a visit to a school in Nuremberg.

“Contrary to what has been planned in Berlin, we’ve pre-ordered in Bavaria: for this year we have 100 million tests.”

Bavaria, Germany’s largest state in terms of size, plans to bring all children back into schools starting on Monday.

SEE ALSO: ‘The right thing to do’ – How Germany is reopening its schools

However, high coronavirus case rates mean that these plans have had to be shelved in several regions.

In Nuremberg, the state’s second largest city, primary school children have been sent back into distance learning after just a week back in the classroom.

The city announced on Friday that schools would have to close again after the 7-day incidence rose above 100 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The nearby city of Fürth closed its schools after just two days of classroom time on Wednesday, after the 7-day incidence rose to 135.

The Bavarian test strategy plans for school children to receive one test per week, while teachers have the possibility of taking two tests a week. The testing is not compulsory.

But teachers’ unions in the southern state have warned that the test capacity only exists on paper and have expressed concern that their members will become infected in the workplace.

“Our teachers are afraid of infection,” Almut Wahl, headmistress of a secondary school in Munich, told BR24.

“Officially they are allowed to be tested twice a week, we have already received a letter about this. But the tests are not there.”

BR24 reports that, contrary to promises made by the state government, teachers in many schools have still not been vaccinated, ventilation systems have not been installed in classrooms, and the test infrastructure has not been put in place.

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