Smart devices will be used to record students’ health data and when they raise their hand

A high school in southern China 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 his or her hand in class, according to local media reports. 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 4.85m yuan (£560,000), circulated online this week, prompting 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 Weibo, the Chinese microblogging system. “Is this Black Mirror in real life?” another said. One comment reposted several times on the microblog 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 posted a statement saying 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 discussion on how to better use [the] wristbands. We’ll also listen to opinions from students, parents, teachers and experts,” the school posted on its Weibo account. It said the purchase was part of a “smart campus” project the school implemented last year.

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?”



