The Department for Education (DfE) in the UK has been monitoring the social media accounts of teaching staff, including teaching assistants and librarians, and keeping files on posts that criticise education policies, according to an investigation carried out by The Observer. The news follows a similar discovery in September, which revealed DfE was keeping files on the country's leading educational experts. However, the monitoring is much more widespread than previously thought, covering even the lowest-paid staff members. Teaching and support staff have expressed shock and anger after discovering that the government had files on them and have subsequently submitted subject access requests (SARs) to establish what information the department holds on them. The DfE has not commented on individual cases and said that it was standard practice to carry out due diligence before engaging external experts.
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