Rajendra Singh, a concerned father, reached Radiant International School in a hurry as soon as he received a message at 10.40am, which reported his daughter's absence from school on Thursday.

When he reached the school premises in anxiety, he was informed that there had been a technical glitch with the attendance system and his daughter, a Class XI student, was in school, attending her classes.

"I got a message from the school at 10.40am, which said my daughter was absent from school. It really scared me and I rushed to the school. My daughter walks to school, as it is only 2km away. Twenty minutes after the first message, I got another one informing me that the previous message was a mistake," he said.

A fault in the attendance system at Radiant International School left several parents in a lurch as more than 2,500 of them received text messages, reporting the absence of their wards from school. They became worried and turned up in school to check with the authorities. Later, they were informed that there had been a problem with the attendance system and had to be pacified.

The attendance procedure in the school starts with a roll call inside the classroom. The attendance sheet is then sent to the computer department of the school where the authorities make a couple of files with the details of the students who are present and absent. The operator uses the details to send text messages to the parents regarding the absence of their child.

A local service provider - Voice Gateway - provides the group messaging service, which the school employs. The representative of the service provider, Alok Kumar, said the firm's role was limited to providing service to the consumer and it took no responsibility for any of the messages sent to parents.

As things rolled out on Thursday, one Ritika Agrahari, who was in charge of the computer section of the school, sent the text messages to parents by mistake. The message was sent to parents whose children were present in school on Thursday and said the children were absent. This created the confusion, which led the administration to sack Ritika, after an explanation to the angry parents.

Aparna Das, another parent whose son is in Class VI, travelled about 10km to reach the school in order to learn of his whereabouts. The second message did nothing to lessen her concern. "I called the school immediately to find out if my son was there. I was worried something had happened to him on the way. I needed to find out for myself," she said.

Akash Sinha, who works in a private transport company, left his workplace as soon as he got the message. His children study in classes II and V, respectively. "I dropped my kids to school in the morning. After I received the text, I called the school but the line was engaged. This terrified me all the more. The school assured me of my children's safety later," he said.

M.S. Rahman, the school principal, said: "The message sent by the school was the result of a technical glitch and we resolved the problem as soon as we got calls from the parents. We have terminated the services of the person responsible for this."