Video cameras placed in classrooms help parents track progress

School refusal is a distressing experience for both parents and children. The troubled parents are often at loggerheads to understand the reason behind the refusal.

But in what promises to be a new experiment, parents will soon be able to monitor the progress of their children in kindergartens through video cameras connected to the Internet.

Related readings:  More needed to ward off threats to security in schools

Understandably so, the proposal has evoked good response from both parents and schools.

"We have paid hefty amounts as school fees. With the help of the cameras and the Internet we will be able to track the progress of our wards and also understand how well they are coping up with other children," says Huang Xuefeng, father of a 3-year-old daughter in Longfor Fengxiangting Kindergarten in Chongqing, a top class kindergarten in the municipal city.

Beishan Kindergarten in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, uses 38 cameras for parents to observe their kids closely. Wang Pan / for China Daily

Most of the parents are connected to the Internet and do not mind coughing up monthly fees of 10-20 yuan for the monitoring service, according to the headmaster of the kindergarten.

The school has so far invested nearly 20,000 yuan on camera systems in five classes.

Using the facility, the parents can log on to the website of the kindergarten with an authorized user name and password at home or at office and watch the progress of their children at school.

It also comes as a comforting gesture for parents, after some violent incidents in schools across China last year triggered security concerns.

"Demand for surveillance products has gone up by nearly 40-50 percent after the attacks on schoolchildren last year," says Wang Yixue, marketing manager of ShenZhen Neitway Information Technology Development Co Ltd.

"We were unable to handle the flood of orders from schools and kindergartens amounting to nearly 500,0000 yuan (584,535 euros) during the last summer vacation in July and August," he says.

Wang expects the market for surveillance products to see steady growth this year, but at a pace slower than that of last year. The national education department and the public security department have attached greater importance to campus safety this year, he says.

The Ministry of Finance is likely to spend around 3.8 billion yuan this year for campus security, according to a statement on its website.

According to Wang, four kindergartens have already purchased on-line video surveillance equipment from his company. Three of them are public-run schools located in Beijing and Shenzhen, while the fourth run is a private school in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province.

The surveillance plan, however, has not found favor with some teachers who are uncomfortable with the constant scrutiny.

"Our products are capable of supporting multiple viewers. But only some kindergartens have chosen to install these products," Wang says.

In some kindergartens, the video cameras are used only by the manager and not available for viewing by the parents.

"We have opened a QQ space for parents and update their children's photographs and the daily progress. We decided not to provide an online surveillance service for parents after discussions," said a teacher at the Bluesky Kindergarten in Changchun, Jilin province.

She said several teachers were uneasy with the surveillance system, as they did not like being watched.

"The surveillance system is widely used in Western countries. Western teachers work in kindergartens for fun, whereas teachers here work for a living."

According to her, the video cameras only convey visual information without any sound. "This could lead to misunderstandings by the parents."

She said despite the problems, her school would strive to improve its communication with parents.

"It is likely that parents will misinterpret what we are doing especially if the camera is at some special angle," says a teacher, who refused to be named.