A prestigious high school in Guangzhou, in China’s Guangdong Province has come under fire for buying “smart bracelets” to track its students.
Guangdong Guangya High School has purchased 3,500 bracelets that would record students’ heart rate and physical activity, as well as the number of times a pupil raised their hand in class, local media reports said.
The bands have a location function and can be used to pay for items, as well as track attendance.
Procurement documents for the wristbands, a purchase of 4.85 million yuan (US$721,559), circulated online this week, prompting an outcry over the privacy of students.
“What’s the difference between this and putting trackers on prisoners or putting locators on dogs? Students are not prisoners,” one user wrote on Sina Weibo.
“Is this Black Mirror in real life?” another asked, referring to the US Netflix series.
One comment reposted several times on Sina Weibo said: “This group of people working in education would be better off as concentration camp guards.”
Alumni, parents and observers have responded so negatively to the news that the school in a statement said it was still considering how best to use the bracelets, which would not need to be worn all the time.
“Our school is still doing research and having discussions on how to better use [the] wristbands. We’ll also listen to opinions from students, parents, teachers and experts,” the school said on Weibo.
The purchase was part of a “smart campus” project that the school implemented last year, it said.
Response from the students has been muted.
A Weibo user named Guyi Sy, who claimed to be a student at Guangya, said: “I believe our high school is very humane. If the majority of students have opinions about this, there will be appropriate change. To those who say this is like a prison, the students have not said anything, so why are you still talking?”
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