What next? a bar code under the skin on the forearm so that we can be scanned like supermarket goods?!!! enough of Big brother surely the money would be better spent into reducing number of students in class, double staffing in classes, better pay condition for lecturers, etc
Moreover no provsion has so far been made for FE students with learning difficulty or those whose first language is not English.
It is crucial that a system enabling those students to access the system is put in place so that they have the same choice as everyone else.

Laila, London ,

With the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) being closed down in the next few years and their responsibilities transfered to LEAs, are they really the best organisation to maintain such a long-term database? Who will have responsibility for maintaining it and ensuring accuracy?

Piet, W Midlands,

Valerie thinks it would be a good idea if it saved her a few minutes filling out forms. What will she do when she finds out her details are wrong (hint, it will cost her to change them and maybe cost her jobs that she was qualified for)? What will she do when her details (together with another couple of million people) are once more lost? Jeremy Clarkson thought there was no problem with lost personal details, until he was 'stung'. Ask someone whose identity has been cloned, it can take months of stress and worry to sort out, never mind the lost money.
The government has proved time and again that it is incapable of securing personal data, and yet it continues to try and grab more and more.

Craig, Manchester, England

If what is said is true this is terrifying - a late developer or a teacher's opinion could damage a youngster for life; and damaged youngsters grow into damaged children and then what do you do?

Mark, Malmö, Sweden

So we know have an NI number an Medical Number an Driving Licence Number and a Passport Number, what difference another number?
Oh and your Payroll Number not forgetting your credit card number your TESCO Card Number and the AA number. Telephone Number too.

dachaidh, rhu, scotland

Came across a recently published psychological, suspense novel (‘The De Clerambault Code' by Nora Johnson), which describes just such a database (DNA there) containing the details of children of NURSERY school-age - a sort of 'crime idol' list. Such an uncanny prediction - to be turned this September by the government into fact (involving children initially from age 14) - shouldn't just increase concerns among parents and teachers about potentially lost/misused data but also civil liberties groups at the growth of official surveillance and the virtual creation in the UK of a 'surveillance state' in which, taken to its inevitable and logical conclusion, citizens risk being transformed into suspects and government agencies intervene in the lives of people before they actually offend. Such a step would, of course, inevitably bring to mind the film 'Minority Report' in which suspects are arrested before they can commit predicted murders...

Robin Simms, Leeds, UK

Nulabour have given us their vision of the future - a bureaucratic, totalitarian state of which the soviets would have been envious. The only consolation (?) is that it is likely to be a gargantuan and hideously expensive failure - at our expense.

Dave, Wrexham,

I have wasted a lot of time looking for evidence of my qualifications when making occasional applications for jobs, training etc.
I also have a few certificates of around 10 credits each at HE level from various CPD courses and personal studies.
I would welcome having them all in one place and through the proposed Qualifications & Credits Framwork have them contribute to a more coherent qualification that might carry me into higher level studies.

Valerie, Cumbria, UK

This is agood idea - so long as the information is secure.

I am all for the National Identity Card. I personally think that compulsory National Service should be re-introduced. It would get the unemployment figures down. We would then "see the wood for the trees" as all those immigrants who call them selves British to get government hand-outs depart these shores once they find out it applies to htem as well. After al you should not be allow to claim benefits if you have not paid in any contributions int he first place.

Kim, Surrey,

Cool, government provided and maintained one-stop shopping for identity theft.

DanO, Mount Vernon, USA

HOMESCHOOL YOUR KIDS. That's what I did, and I have zero regrets. Ours are homeschooled in two languages (English and Japanese) but there are so many excellent resources available for homeschoolers in English that anyone can do it. My children and their homeschooled friends have encountered ZERO obstacles to getting into good universities where they receive scholarships and maintain grades that put them at the top of their classes. Homeschooling is a wonderful way to say "NO" to statist encroachments on liberty.

Christopher Witmer, Tokyo, Japan

Absolutely appalling. If employers want to check qualifications they only have to ask for the certificates to be produced and they certainly do not need to know about exclusions etc. Many people who I have met were horrendous at school but have turned in to hard working and prductive adults. Also, does nayone see the irony in the fact that the governemnt wants to do this but we cannot see the school records of our grandparents and previous ancesotrs to them as , due to the Data Protection Act, this is not allowed as it 'Might embarrass them'. I would very much like to know the name of the people who
a) come up with these ideas
and
b) Authorise their implementation
Then I would want them analysed to find out what kind of flawed thinking they suffer from.

Denise B, Oldbury, UK

Will it also mean that the child mey yet have the number tattooed on their person just like another fascist government's practice carried out in Germany? Why not> The British have more agencies and cameras spying onpeople than any other country in the world. Thank god I saw the light and got out of the sinking society to the free land of Canada.

Harry Greenwood, West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

I read the book Brave New World last year by Aldous Huxley He talked of a world where its citizens were controlled but "contented by their servitude" .
Even though there has been a huge amount of dumbing down of television and an invasion of celebrity culture surely this government does not think we are too docile to give up our civil liberties easily? Already though at a frightening pace we are having them taken away and we are being watched and monitored in many ways. We have MP's being bugged, a terrorism act that is being used in a much too heavy handed way as reported in this newspaper only today, a national database called Spine being set up this minute to record everyones medical/NHS records, CCTV on every corner, babies being numbered, chips/biometrics in all passports, we are unable to protest on the streets without prior notice , a plan to introduce a cashless society so that all our financial movements are tracked. What next the Verichip.??

Louise, Manchester, England

Dear God, the Stasi live! The urge of every government to have knowledge, and thus control, of its citizens is fast becoming a reality in Britain. The same impulse is rampant over here in the States (they're scanning EVERY Internet contact), and there are citizens here who naively (as Julie from Shipley) think "if there's nothing to hide in your life, why worry?" That the gov't will only use this information for good purposes; that it will use the information for the statted goals only. Sorry, people, but every bit of power that the citizenry grants its rulers over its private lives will be extended just as far as government agents can push the limits.
We in the US were promised that the ability to wiretap at will (disregarding the lie about SELECTIVE wiretapping) would ONLY be used in the fight against Islamic terrorists; within months, the FBI was using their "discretionary power" to monitor everyday criminals, in direct contravention of our constitution. Be forewarned!

Geoffrey Tudor, Sequim, WA, USA

The Government's Database State is showing more and more dimensions. This multifaceted assault on our privacy, these expensive, useless infringements on our lives, these licenses to live must be stopped.

Several commenters here have asked what they can do about this. The NO2ID campaign resists not only the National Identity Scheme, but all aspects of the Database State. It has local groups all around the country, and they all need more help. Getting out there, spreading the word to the public, campaigning to councillors and MPs - this is how this will stop, when Labour realise they'll lose votes if they continue.

http://www.no2id.net/ - give money, get involved, stop this.

Dave Page, Manchester, UK,

Where are the rights of a child? The protection of any underage indivdual if their parents are not there? Is England becoming a third world country?! Education is an important part of life, but it's not how you live it, but what you make in life after. all the ADHD children and all problems they have? and yet even Einstien made it, after a school career that on the books, was not the best. Suddenly I'm almost happy to know that I'm an expat.

Anny, Prato,

".... Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, is said to be satisfied with the security arrangements made for the new database ...." As an ex-ORACLE field support rep. and decades long IT professional (much of it classified work) I don't care how satisfied Mr. Thomas is. I assure you ANY system that can be accessed can be hacked into. (I know, I've done the work) If the gov. can't show a COMPELLING NEED (not want, wish or desire but NEED) for this, the concerned citizens of the UK need to rise up and declare they will not tolerate such a hare-brained scheme ( my apologies to the British hare for the insulting comparison). This smacks of a "because I can" attitude on the part of government that indicates they do not believe the citizens of the UK can or should be allowed the God given rights that every human being is entitled to.
UK parents, how will you explain to your children in 15 years why you sold them out if you don't act now?

Leslie B. Hock, Houston, USA / Texas

This is sinister!

Patricia, Ipswich, England

Will the people whose details are recorded on the system be able to check its validity ?

How will they do that if they have no computer or no computer skills ?

Will the individual have to give permission for an employer to check their details ?

If not, what's to stop a company simply trawling through a range or numbers, or even ALL numbers, to find peoples' details, e.g. for a mail-shot ?

Clive, Surrey,

This government is like a geeky kid that believes IT is the answer to the life, the universe and everything.
Kids can't walk the streets safely. They feel the need to carry knives for self-protection. Shop-keepers assault their ears with noise. And then they're supposed to grow up as comiitted citizens.
But at least they can carry a number with them for the rest of their life. Well isn't a NI number such a number? And aren't there lots of false ones out there?

Eddie Reader, birmingham, england

Original child numbering was used in the National Insurance Scheme. Look what a complete shambles it is now. Mind you, causing NI it to fail and be seen to fail, helps to discredit the Scheme to the point of public apathy. Just what the Government ordered.

ID Cards? You've got to be kidding.

michael murphy, Brightlingsea, England

I know loads of people who didn't do particularly well at school, but have managed to make a success of their lives 'on the other side' and who would be held back for life by something like this. I can't imagine who it's supposed to be useful to? Why don't the government concentrate on joining up the agencies who are supposed to help kids at risk before going for a cheap shot like this?

Anne, coventry, UK

Yes, a record of expulsions is really going to get troubled youths in to the workplace isn't it! I thought we were already branded with a number anyway - National Insurance? Or is this record too easily stolen to be used for our grades? I assume they will have a database to store all the numbers that, let me guess, will be highly secure until used by people. We don't trust the government with our details now and they call us 'customers' when refering to the general population in recent data blunders. CUSTOMERS HAVE AN OPTION TO NOT USE A SERVICE!!!!! Get it through your thick skulls politicians, doing nothing rather than filling your time with organising new computer systems might actually do us all better. You could lower taxes on savings and stimulate the banking and mortgage market without any word of Rotten Rock!

Alistair Kipling, Birmingham,

wouldnt it be easier to just tatoo it somewhere convenient,inside the forearm or wherever

paul corrigan, france,

So this number is in addition to the National Insurance numder that everyone will have by 18, the child benefit number that every child has already, the bank account number that everyone will have if not already in addition to numerous other numbers such as store cards, mobile phones, credit cards, facebook, bebo, etc, etc. Should not the govt make one number universal or none at all and let liberty reign.

michael tindall, Christchurch, new zealand

The Nu-Labour Jackboot still trying to crush our democracy.

Is there Really no way to rid ourselves of these evil people?

doris, South East, of what was England

It will be expensive, run 2 or 3 times over budget, not work properly and the database will be stolen from a laptop left on the back seat of a car. Same nonsense, different day.

mnairb, Hove,

The system will be a totally fallible farce.

To remedy this they'll and convince us to agree to a microchip implant.

Then we really will be in the soup.

Glen Oglethorpe, Workington, Cumbria, England

It is time that both the public and the government recognise that we are supposed to live in a liberal democracy. Government is supposed to be "of the people, by the people and for the people". Government exists to serve us, not the other way around. These proposals, nightmareish though they are, are simply the tip of the iceberg. If (over my dead body) compulsory ID cards are brought into being, existing technology would enable them to be fitted with RFID transmitters. The movements of every one of us could be tracked in real time. Where does this end?
The argument for all of this is that people who have done nothing wrong have nothing to fear. My rejection of that is that if I have done nothing wrong, then neither the state nor anyone else has any right whatsoever to know whom I am or what I am doing. My life belongs to me, not the state.

Michael Cockerham, Bexley, Kent

As someone working with data in FE, this is the best news I've heard in ages. If we had a way of ensuring that each student arrived with comprehensive records on prior achievement at school, we could improve our service to disaffected young people no end. New students have lost certificates, can't remember their grades from school or the exact name of the qualifications they took. Currently the information we get from other agencies is thread bare (data protection or other confidentiality clause is often cited as the reason). We urgently need to work collaboratively in order to be efficient and cost effective. The intent behind this is not sinister at all, and anyone who knows anything about electronic data understands that there must be a primary key. We desperately want to support the learners to the best of our ability. In my view, anything that supports this can only be a positive thing. Can we be calm about this?

Julie, Shipley, West Yorkshire

Another computer system that won't work and which contains intimate details that can get lost in the post or stolen. All at OUR expence!

Do not forget, Oh people of great Britain ( I use the small g intentionally) YOU voted this government in time after time, despite their stated intentions of increased "security" by watching everything we do, from birth to death and probably afterwards too!

Tony Smith, The Lizard, Kernow

Its just another way of keeping tracks on individuals. I think it is appalling! I have said it in previous statements and I will go on saying it: "I thought they brought down the iron curtain". If all the Government has got to do is supply 'numbers' for everyone then we are in a poor state of affairs. It is sickening when there are other more important issues that need addressing than trying to 'number' teenagers so ALL their details are available publicly.

Rose Underwood BSc
A Mother, Grandmother from Stalybridge

Rose Underwood BSc, Stalybridge, England

Number of the beast?

Ian Middleton, Staffordshire, England

Personal tracking already happens in Fife. A database was recently created which contains the personal information of every single child who access YMCA for whatever reason.

Fife Council said it was created to carry out longitudinal studies of the type of activites the children engage in. As far as I am aware, parents were not consulted prior to this information being collated and given to Fife Council. It will then be used to follow and record the social activites - or otherwise, of these children through to adulthood.

P Cunningham, Cupar, Fife

This governments approach to personal privacy and freedom can only be described as autrocious. The sooner they are kicked out of office, the better, and that is from a lifelong supporter of the labour party.

johnhmorgan, Wakefield, West Yorks

We are heading towards a brave new world run by a bunch of not very brave new men and women

cb, london, uk

Oooh, goody: more computerized systems!

A couple of questions. How much is this supposed to cost? ... And how much will it cost?

Amanda Hopkins, Rugby, U.K.

How many numbers does each person need?
National insurance number, passport number, Tax number and I guess Identity Card number - now a school number.
Whatever happened to joined up Government thinking!

Frank, Swindon,

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Arthur, Newcastle,

The issue is NOT the number. I have, by necessity, an NHS number and a NI number. These are for life. The issue is yet more information going onto a computer - with the issues of wrong data entry and computer failure and computer fraud all so prevalent it seems to me to be another step into folly.

Dominic, Teddington, London,

Andrew, why should the children need to remind themselves for life about their bad behaviour at school ? The children are not going to be children forever. Their bad behaviour at school is supposed to be turned round with good behaviour at school, through good teaching and learning practices by staff, by parents at home and society in general. They are supposed to move on as they grow up and the vast majority of children as they enter higher school, university or even employment do improve their behaviour. They are supposed to leave school with positive experiences and not just gloom and doom and to be reminded of their bad behaviour at school for the rest of their adult lives ! Most who look back already remind themselves of all their experiences when they were children. Let's be more optimistic and positive !!

DKP London

DKP, London, United Kingdom

Why is the government obsessed with tracking everyone?

I don't want to be tracked and I'm sure no-one else does either.

Surely, there is something we British can do to stop this disgusting Big Brother mentality.

Dennis Spence (British Ex-pat), Manila, Philippines

Many children fail at school, then go on to do well in higher learning. But let's calm down and embrace these steps towards (as Mr. Brown likes to call it) a New World Order.

Sarah, Manchester,

Dear Jon of London, I don't hate my country, I still enjoy a pint in my local, sailing on the estuary, walking in the hills, shivering on the touchlines at my local rugby club and the wonderful seasons we enjoy in this green and pleasant land. I am niether wealthy nor priveleged but I've worked hard and achieved well during my life. By contrast, I despise the current bunch of labour amateurs who are disgracing that world class institution which has for centuries in this country been known as government. Every single Briton who values this country and the values of freedoms for which our grandparents fought in 2 world wars must get out and vote this disgraceful Labour mess out of office at the next general election.

MJH, Devon, GB

The only problem is where to place the tattoo,forehead or arm,abnormal children will need,special numbering according to their needs.

derek bevan, you dont care, where ever

'I will not be pushed, filed , stamped, indexed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own'

I can dream, can't I.....?

Paul, Southampton,

I really fear for the future of the next generation. Noise repellents such as used against vermin are to be employed against groups of teenagers congregating in public spaces. Shades of collective punishment. Culture is to be taught in schools is the next plan, and makes me scream, "When I hear culture I reach for my revolver". Even Goering, one of the arch dictators of the Nazi regime was wary of spreading the state's ideas in this field.

Anne Wotana Kaye, London, England

It really is time the people of Britain woke up.
The government seems to have an unwritten agenda to compile a comprehensive dossier on each of its citizens -something worthy of Nazi germany or Stalinist Russia.
The evidence is plain to see:
Computerised Health records
Vehicle number plate recognition
Passport scanning at port of entry
National Insurance numbers
now ULNs.
with the propect of identity cards and ever nore probing questions on the national census form
Why do they want this information if it is not to build a dossier on YOU! personnally
Write to your MP now and tell him his job is on the line unless there is a halt in this stealthy introduction of the surveillance society.

r payne, macon, france

This is far in excess than George Orwell could ever have imagined. What goes through the heads of these people? They are supposed to be public servants not public masters. This government must end before it is too late for all of us.

HC, london,

Maybe finally kids will finally realise that their behaviour at schools will now have consequences as it will stay with them for life.

Andrew, London,

This is indeed worrying. Passwords flying about all over the place breaks the very first rule of computer security.

And what of erroneous entries? These will occur of course, humans input the data and humans make mistakes. These could blight a child's whole future. So, what does Tamper-proof mean here? Obviously, the subject cannot tamper with (change his data) so how does he correct errors? Who, in fact , enters and maintains the basic data. A bank of data inputters in India, paid less than the minimum wage?

How long, one is forced to wonder, before the ULN is linked to the millions of surveillance cameras that now spy on UK citizens as they go about their lawful daily business? Will future generations be required to flash a ULN number at every camera?

The Surveillance State that the UK has become in the last ten years seems to be intensifying under this PM, who really does seem to be possessed of an overpowering urge to micromanage everything and everybody in the country.

Weep.

Bill , Suzhou, China

This government has created a police state. How can a child make a fresh start if every bad result or misdemeanor is catalogued for ever. There is no way that I will agree to this. I will leave first. I am coming to hate my own country.

Jon Smith, London, England

Why are we allowing government to overly interfere in our lives? Why can't they deal with things that need to be done instead of wasting time and money not to mention the unneccessary invasion into our lives on spin-off, headline grabbing projects. Not only do I not trust the Government to handle this much information on principle. I sincerely question they're motives in taking these steps. Where is our honourable opposition to guard against abuse and waste in Government?

Diana, London,

Yet another reason to stop my child being educated in the UK

Patrick Devlin, Taipei, Taiwan