Council fits kids with GPS to prove boys 'dominate' playgrounds

A left-wing French council has fitted primary school children with GPS devices to prove that boys 'dominate' playgrounds - and is now pledging to destroy football pitches.

Critics have slammed the 'social engineering' project of monitoring schoolchildren at break times to prove that boys dominate the areas at the expense of girls.

The scheme is meant to help officials make playgrounds more inclusive and make young boys more tolerant and respectful.

The 125 devices will be worn by children volunteers in Year Five, but their parents will not be asked beforehand.

The council in Strasbourg wants to produce maps showing playground use by age and gender using the data.

Christelle Wieder, who is in charge of sex equality at the council and the Deputy Mayor of Strasbourg, told The Times that the devices show 80 per cent of space at break time is used by mostly boys.

She said there is 'gender discrimination' but also age discrimination as Year Five and Six take over at the expense of younger Year Threes.

A group of bigger boys will normally play football in the middle while girls - and boys who weren't invited - hang around the edge.

The council said the outlier children 'do not develop the same sense of legitimacy and the same capacities' which may be replicated outside of school.

It wants to rip out the football spaces used by the boys and replace them with greenery, cabins and other games.

There will also be 'calm zones, active zones and exploration zones'.

But critics have slammed the use of taxpayers money to equip GPS trackers at a cost of several hundred thousand euros to discover what was 'obvious'.

They said schemes like this which make boys feel 'permanently guilty' like 'little monsters displaying toxic masculinity' aren't helpful.