What is the point?

Cube stole some of my thunder here, but, as stated do we really belive that this data won't be used for any other use?

And also the amount of money that these systems will cost would be huge. Knowing government tenders (NHS system anyone?), this will be a disaster. Plus, the only uses they've stated is to:

speed up lunch queues - how exactly? Knowing how effective biometrics have been so far, imagine how many '404 - fingerprint not found' msgs kids will get. Plus how is a kid going to get his lunch if the computer decides its not him?

remove the stigma of school meals - I didnt remember anyone giving a crap about that in school, and surely an effective anti-bullying policy would deal with the matter more effectivly than a large IT project (and cheaper).

speed up register taking - how long does it take to read out a list of names?

prevent access - give me a break! If people want to get in they will. Grab a first year, march him to a door and grab his finger, end of.

Basically some people have attended some seminars saw lots of flashing lights and thought:" that would be so cool". Plus who is going to pay for it, the schools themselves, or will it come from the education budget (all 10p) as a whole? This is such a bad idea i dont know where to begin.