Post by thomas on Oct 1, 2023 15:35:58 GMT
Revealed: UK government keeping files on education critics’ social media activity
The Department for Education (DfE) is keeping files monitoring the social media activity of some of the country’s leading educational experts, the Observer can reveal.
At least nine experts have uncovered files held on them, some as long as 60 pages…
Speaking to the Observer, Bradbury, principal lecturer in early childhood studies at Nottingham Trent University, said: “I received a phone call from the organisers saying there were some concerns about us being speakers. The DfE had decided we were unsuitable because we had been critical of government policy.”
He said: “To be told that we couldn’t have this debate felt like we were living in a dictatorship, not a democracy.
“We were due to talk about nurturing and early child development. It wasn’t some covert stuff about infiltrating Russia.”
Swailes, an independent consultant who advises schools and nurseries on early years education, was so shocked that she filed a subject access request, requiring the DfE to disclose any documents it held on her.
The results, which she received at the end of the summer, revealed that the department kept a file on her. It included critical tweets she had posted about Ofsted, England’s schools inspectorate, and noted that she had “liked” posts promoting guidance on teaching young children that was written by educationists rather than the government.
The Department for Education (DfE) is keeping files monitoring the social media activity of some of the country’s leading educational experts, the Observer can reveal.
At least nine experts have uncovered files held on them, some as long as 60 pages…
Speaking to the Observer, Bradbury, principal lecturer in early childhood studies at Nottingham Trent University, said: “I received a phone call from the organisers saying there were some concerns about us being speakers. The DfE had decided we were unsuitable because we had been critical of government policy.”
He said: “To be told that we couldn’t have this debate felt like we were living in a dictatorship, not a democracy.
“We were due to talk about nurturing and early child development. It wasn’t some covert stuff about infiltrating Russia.”
Swailes, an independent consultant who advises schools and nurseries on early years education, was so shocked that she filed a subject access request, requiring the DfE to disclose any documents it held on her.
The results, which she received at the end of the summer, revealed that the department kept a file on her. It included critical tweets she had posted about Ofsted, England’s schools inspectorate, and noted that she had “liked” posts promoting guidance on teaching young children that was written by educationists rather than the government.
She said: “They have tried to silence me. What they did could have ruined my livelihood and still has the potential to.”