I am flabbergasted at the article concerning our radio frequency product for pupil registration, which claimed that “Pupils can be tracked round town” (TES, November 23). The system will not track anybody. It uses a passive microchip that can only be read by a specific reader in the school environment with a teacher. The chip does not contain any details, only a set of numbers allocated to a specific pupil.
This saves time by giving class teachers quick access via the school computer system to pupil details already stored, relieving them from having to wade through mountains of paperwork.
The microchip used is the same as a door entry swipe card, bank card or chip and pin card. You cannot be tracked by these in real time. All they can track is where the chip was last used to perform a specific task. The only tracking our system can perform is to tell us which class a child was in last, just as the old registration book did - and does that fall foul of civil liberties? The chip is woven into a garment rather than a card so that the pupil can’t lose it.
Trevor Darnborough, Director, Darnbro Ltd, Doncaster.
