Kozhikode: The Kerala State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (KeSCPCR) has asked the Director of Public Instruction (DPI) and Higher Secondary Education (HSE) director to immediately issue an order to prevent use of mobile phones in schools. The new directive comes against the backdrop of a boy committing suicide in a higher secondary school at Thalassery in Kannur in 2017.
Commission member K Naseer, who issued the directive, told Onmanorama that the panel wanted to keep the privacy of the school as well as the student and the issue was not an isolated case. He also pointed out that there existed a restriction on both teachers and students using mobile phones during school hours, but rarely the schools gave heed to it.
“On a similar directive recommended by me as a member of Child Rights Commission way back in 2016, the higher secondary director issued a circular in January last year preventing the use of mobile phones and social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp during class hours. That circular by the director insisted that disciplinary action should be taken against those teachers and students who flouted the rule. However, still many schools in the state are not implementing those directions strictly, and there are numerous cases coming up before the Commission due to the menace of smartphones on the campus,” Naseer said.
The Commission also directed that in case any of the students face any kind of threat on the campus from external or internal forces, the school authorities should take stringent measures, including police action. The DPI as well as HSE director should make sure that the school officials are taking timely action against such crimes.
In this particular case, one boy was allegedly beaten up by the relatives of a girl, also a student of the same school, when the former clicked her photograph without permission. The district child protection officer gave a report before the Commission that the school authorities failed to report the matter to the police when the boy was attacked. Commission found that it was a serious lapse on the part of the school authorities as they failed to give protection to the boy from outsiders.
According to his father, who is the petitioner, the boy committed suicide after the issue at school. However, the school authorities deposed that there were no failure on their part and that the boy was sent home when there was a ruckus in his class.
