A NEW high school says students will be charged for their lunches using a retina scanning device to prevent poor children who eat for free being ridiculed in the cafeteria.

Dr Ed Yates, headmaster of the Venerable Bede school, said the advanced eye-recognition software would be in place when the institution opens its doors to 900 students in September in Sunderland, England.

He said the school was concerned that if students were forced to pay for their lunches in cash the poor ones who received food for free could be exposed and stigmatised. Officials have therefore decided to make the entire school "cashless".

The retina scanning device would also be used in the library when students took out and returned books, Yates said.

He reassured parents that the low-intensity light of the retina scanning devices would be efficient and safe for all students.

"We think we are the first (school) in the country to use this," he said of the device. "But this is not a James Bond school for spies.

"This is not science fiction. This is technology that exists."

The Associated Press