Kamarozaman was referring to the proposal to install CCTVs in areas such as classrooms, toilets and the teachers’ room.
“In terms of privacy, it would violate basic human rights.
“It is also against the law for photos or video footage of students to be circulated on social media or any other outlets.
“There should be some form of guidelines to ensure that such photos or footage can only be used for the purpose of investigations by the police and not circulated by teachers, students or parents to the public,” he told FMT.
Kamarozaman added that this is also to avoid such footage being used for the “wrong reasons”.
“The possibility of CCTV camera footage being circulated on social media is very high and this will lead to misconstrued or wrong messages being circulated.
“The teachers’ room is also where teachers rest. To place a CCTV camera there will not be appropriate.
“Even in the school canteen. It is a place where the students eat and play. It is very easy for people to misunderstand what goes on there if at all a clip of what happens at the school canteen is circulated,” he said.
Kamarozaman said the main idea of CCTVs came about because crimes committed by outsiders were increasing.
“We are talking about outsiders coming into the school at 2am to steal electronic and metal equipment.
“Such criminal cases are increasing and that is why the installation of CCTVs was proposed.
“The idea was to have the surveillance cameras installed in areas where teachers are not able to monitor, such as quiet corners in the school compound.
“Installation along the corridors outside the teachers’ room and classrooms will be sufficient,” he said, adding the CCTV would also help monitor disciplinary problems among students in the same areas.
Commenting on SK Sungai Penchala, Kuala Lumpur, where the school administration has installed CCTV cameras in the staffroom, Kamarozaman said it was an isolated case.
“We have not received any other complaints from other schools regarding CCTV installations.
“If the headmaster of the school wants to monitor the teachers, he should just walk into the teachers’ room. Both the headmaster’s room and teachers’ room are located very close to each other,” he said.
Comply with Personal Data Protection Act guidelines
Meanwhile, lawyer Suaran Singh Sidhu said those who installed CCTVs at their premises have to comply with the guidelines under the Personal Data Protection Act or PDPA.
“As long as the school authorities, in this case the headmasters, comply and observe the principles, there is nothing wrong with them doing so,” he said.
Suaran, who heads the Bar Council’s cyber law and information technology committee, was asked if SK Sungai Penchala had breached privacy laws when it set up CCTV cameras in the teachers’ room.
“PDPA guidelines provide, among others, how an individual should manage the recordings, the storage requirements and the usage of the recording.
“To put up a notice to say this place is under CCTV surveillance is not enough,” he said.
He added that employers have the right to set up CCTV cameras in the workplace because they have the right to know what is happening in their office.
“You cannot stop them from doing so to take care of the security, more so in high-risk schools where there are a lot of bullying and assault complaints.
“There is a public interest element in all these,” Suaran said.
He also questioned the main concern addressed by the teachers in their complaint against the headmaster using CCTV cameras to monitor them.
“They complained the CCTV cameras invade their privacy. I would like to ask them: are they saying the staff room is a ‘private space’?”
Suaran said if teachers claimed privacy on their part, would that mean the headmaster, as the supervisor, is not allowed to come into the staffroom?
‘Preventing and recording crimes’
Yesterday, NUTP secretary-general Harry Tan said that CCTV cameras would jeopardise the privacy of the teachers and cause issues related to sensitivities.
“The education ministry must ensure that the installation of CCTV cameras in schools is purely for security purposes,” he said in a statement.
Last September, the home ministry said it was in the midst of formulating a law relating to the expansion of the use of CCTVs in the country.
Deputy Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed said it was aimed at increasing security, as well as preventing and recording crimes taking place in public places.
Nur Jazlan said the visuals recorded by the CCTV system could also be used as solid evidence in court.