Pupil ID numbers: Your views

Ministers have announced plans to give every pupil at a state school in Scotland a unique identification number as a child safety measure.

The aim is to ensure that councils and schools can quickly share information.

The move follows cases like those of Rory Blackhall and Danielle Reid. In both cases there were issues about information on their whereabouts.

We asked if you thought giving pupils Scottish Candidate Numbers (SCN) would help to keep track of children.

The following represents the balance of opinions received.

The sort of failures that are claimed as the reasoning behind this scheme will not be prevented by giving the students unique numbers. Some might be prevented by communication between school and parents when students are absent and by communication between schools when a student is transferred.
Megan, Cheshire

Excellent idea. It will keep children safe and reduce truanting. I doubt anyone will complain about less kids hanging about the streets, vandalising buses, shoplifting etc when bunking off. Anything that keeps our children safe has to be considered. Forget about whether this is a pathway to national identity cards. Lets not 'cut our noses off' to spite our children.
Joanne, Glasgow

Giving pupils a number will do little to help child protection and this system will place enormous extra workloads on the police and those working in schools. Just how does the government intend to implement this system and what are the costs involved? For example, all school pupils are already managed by databases by schools. This new number will mean that existing systems in place (which differ from one local authority to another) will have to be modified and replaced at expense to the taxpayer without any results. How would this system have helped the tragic incident of Rory Blackhall? The parents may have got texted but by that time I'm afraid that very little could be done. What we really need is better communication with social services and police, especially where a pupil moves school etc.
Dave, Dumfries

A ridiculous idea designed to enable officialdom to say that they are doing something when, in fact, the 'idea' will accomplish nothing!
M McPake, Livingston

I was given my SCN in 1996 when I sat my Standard Grade prelims (and I still know it off by heart!). It is already a unique identification number, which every Scottish child is given at this stage in their education for keeping track of exam results. If the same number can be used to keep track of children moving across the country - whether for protection reasons or purely to keep track of their academic records - surely this is a good thing?
Ruth, Geneva, Switzerland

A leading question - I'd be happier about this is if it didn't sound like another case of 'try it out on the Jocks'. Will this be happening in England? I doubt it.
Sally, Stirling

This is great news for me, but then again I'm an IT contractor. As a parent, I can't see the benefit.
Colin MacDonald, Glasgow

How long before we have to tag them with RFID chip implants too?
G Andrew Holmes, Norwich, Norfolk

This is silly. What's wrong with names? Don't schools know those any more? If we need to have numbers, then issue the kids with their National Insurance numbers early. Then it's a reference for life. Currently issued at 16-years-old I think. If I thought that government was that smart, I'd assume it was another push for ID cards by the back door. But now all this will do is create more administration overload and allow room for unnecessary error. Total, utter, complete waste of time. Politicians and, possibly, civil servants wanting to be seen to do something.
John B, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire

The best safety measure that the Government could introduce would be to sack underperforming teachers and improve the pay of the good ones. Better still, to make schools really safe, take them away from local authority control.
Donald, Glasgow

Will this magic number be linked to a 'sooper dooper' GSP database which will automatically show on a map where each child is? How can a number on its own provide a safety measure? Another case of 1984 with government/officialdom interference. We will train the sheep and they won't know any difference. Another headline grabbing initiative not thought through. Identity cards via the back door.
AMcR, Stirling UK

It may help but is it not a further administrative workload for schools, many of which only have part time secretarial assistance? It is still the parents' responsibility to ensure their child gets to school safely.
Bill Hilton, Stranraer

The seems to fulfil two objectives. Firstly, being seen to be doing something. Secondly, paving the way for "identity" cards, something ministers have said will not be used for devolved matters. Officials and party politicians like to be seen to be doing something. However, giving every child a number will do little or nothing to prevent children being harmed. It is actually their own family and motorists that pose most danger to children, but officials and party politicians don't want to confront that fact. A number will not stop family or motorists hurting children. Strangers cause little danger to children. The number of children abused by strangers is the same now as it was 40 years ago.
David Hansen, Edinburgh

So the government (the state) wants to give all adults a unique ID number, and now they want to give all children a unique ID number. What is this obsession with tagging the populace? I can see a rise in home schooling.
Duncan S, London and Ayrshire

Excellent idea, but it needs to be implemented and administered across the whole UK to be effective in cases such as Danielle Reid. Else children would disappear off the radar going from Scotland to England. There is no Big Brother issue here. Child details are already on record - this plan just gives children more safety. -
Steve, Exeter

Why are numbers required? Many schools in the US have been running 'Operation Safe Arrival' type programmes for over 25 years, without numbering the children. What possible pay-back can there be for an undoubtedly expensive child numbering system? Names and addresses will work just fine in the rare occurrences when a child goes missing, thank you very much. Ministers should ensure schools have the resources to make sure all their charges are present and if not to contact the child's parents or guardian, and forget a grandiose numbering and tracking scheme that over complicates what they are trying to accomplish in the first place.
MikeG, Aberdeen

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