RANCHI: In one of its kind initative to prevent children’s involvement in cyber crime related activities, attendance at this school in Jamtara is taken thrice to ensure that the students do not sneak out for any kind of phishing activities.
According to officials, as many as 20 per cent of the students studying Government Gulab Rai Gutgutia +2 School under Karamatand Block in Jamtara, were found missing after marking their attendance in the morning.
The school has current strength of 2,000 students studying in class 9 to 12. It was suspected that these children, who went missing from school after marking their attendance, were involved in cyber crime in connivance with the youths who commit cyber crimes. When police wanted to arrest these children, their parents forcibly took the photocopy of the attendance register from the school and produced before the court and got bail very easily.
Notably, Jamtara is known as the phishing capital of India and a hub for cybercrimes. The city has been involved in cybercrime on a global scale, with cyber criminals from the area committing fraud in other parts of India and even abroad.
Modus operandi of these budding cyber criminals was revealed recently when Kerala police arrested a minor involved in cyber crime and wanted to take him on transit remand. But, his parents succeeded in securing bail by showing his attendance in school.
When the police investigated the matter, it was revealed that the school attendance sheet was being used as a tool by those students to avoid their arresting. Therefore, suspecting the involvement of school children in cyber crime, the school principal started taking their attendance thrice, first in the morning, then in the noon and lastly in the evening before their dispersal, which proved to be quite effective in preventing children’s involvement in cyber crimes.
“Now, after the direction was passed in March April, 2023, number of children missing after marking their attendance, has decreased to almost zero. It is really satisfying that we have been able to stop children’s involvement in cyber crimes,” said Regional Joint Director of Education, Santhal Pargana Division, Dr Gopal Krishna Jha, the then District Education Officer in Jamtara.
“It all happened after we were informed by the police that the children, studying in Government Gulab Rai Gutgutia +2 School, were involved in cyber crimes. When we examined closely, it was found that many of the children sneaked out of the school after marking their attendance only to return the next day,” said the RJDE. Interestingly, those children who were found sneaking out involved both the boys and girls, he added.
The RJDE said that after a long brainstorming, they decided to mark their attendance thrice to keep a track of the missing children. When they started keeping a track of it, it was found that as many as 20 per cent of the children were sneaking out of school regularly, they said.
“Since, it was a matter of embarrassment both for the school and parents; we started sending a team of teachers to their homes to convince their parents explaining the legal aspects of it,” said Jha.