I accept all your points - but if I'm not mistaken, it was the IT department who actually came up with the plan. If they were the ones who invented it, then I assume they must know a way of making it work; but, as we've discussed here, the method of doing so isn't at all clear..

This has little to do with the teachers - it's the IT department trying to restrict us even more. They already implemented a certification system which I have not yet discovered how to set up on Linux, and now they have come up with this. I agree that this is not the correct method to make us work more - if that is possible! We already get far too much work as it is, and especially when you're in top sets you usually have to wake up very early in the morning to finish the set work.
Basically by using a "whitelist" of approved applications and looking for files and executables related to common games.
Come to think of it - you may have hit the nail on the head, nihil. What if they allowed only the standard services and the MS Office suite to run? That would be a real pain in the ass (and I've got OO.org, not MS Office).

I am at a fee-paying boarding school - one of the top in the country, so I doubt this attempt is to get higher up the tables. Anyway, if this program was installed on everyone's laptop, there's no doubt the students would react like a red rag to a bull.

I'll let you know if I get any updates. As I said, I should be having a word with the head of IT soon..

Cheers,

-jk