‘Reforms in UP board forced fraudulent students to quit’
ALLAHABAD: It may be a while before Uttar Pradesh’s education board rids itself of the “examination fraud” taint, but officials believe the newly introduced reforms are a step in the right direction. The BJP government led by Yogi Adityanath had spelt out cleansing the state board — known as the Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad — as one of its chief priorities after coming to power last year.
Deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma, who also holds the portfolio of secondary education minister, then announced measures such as installation of CCTV cameras at 8,057 exam centres, virtual allocation of centres and online registration of candidates to ensure that “freeand-fair examinations” were held in collaboration with the special task force.
These measures, however, gave rise to major repercussions. As many as 2,89,308 candidates dropped out on the first day of the examinations (February 6), and six days later, the number had swelled to 10,54,992 — 15.89% of the 66,37,018 registered examinees.
“This bulk exodus of examinees shows that many candidates were relying on fraudulent means to pass. Students who attend classes and study for their examinations will not give up that easily,” said UP Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh (UPMSS) general secretary Lal Mani Diwedi.
The teachers’ association official claimed that all such candidates were “prepaid degreeseekers” who managed to infiltrate the board’s registration process but failed to execute their plans due to safeguards instituted by the administration. “They had no option but to quit because they were largely depending on fraudulent means to pass,” he said.
UPMSS (Allahabad unit) president Sunil Kumar Shukla sought action against all such offenders. “Who exactly are these copying mafia leaders? Do they infiltrate the examination system from outside, or are they already ingrained in it? The Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad should identify such elements and make an example out of them,” he said.
According to Abhay Awasthi, Congress district unit officerbearer and ex-allahabad University students union leader, the “copying mafia” has been calling the shots in the state board exams for years due to corruption in UP education board’s machinery.
“These people use money and muscle to sully the system. First, they get the colleges affiliated to the board. Once their institutions are made centres, they get fake candidates registered for hefty bribes. Crores change hands — with candidates from UP shelling out anywhere between ₹8,000 and ₹20,000, and those from other st- ates paying a little more,” he said.
Awasthi also wanted the government to investigate candidates who dropped out, so as to get to the root of the fraud allegedly perpetrated by private schools. A clerk with the district inspector of schools’ office in Allahabad claimed that the rot runs deep in the state’s education system.
“Everything here is on sale — be it educational degrees, contracts pertaining to the board’s functioning, allocation of exam centres, granting of affiliation or appointment of teachers and other staffers. One government cannot fix everything. This problem is as old as the board’s existence...,” he said.
Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad secretary Neena Srivastava said the authorities may consider investigating the “quitters” once the exam process is completed. “We could even check their attendance levels in class, so as to gauge if these candidates were solely dependent on unfair means to pass the exams,” she added.
Srivastava insisted that the state’s anti-fraud measures were starting to yield results. “The large number of dropouts only goes to show that our attempts at holding free and fair examinations are working,” she said.
Records reveal that as many as 6,75,701 candidates (4,18,419 high school and 2,57,282 intermediate students) decided to quit in view of strict measures in 2015, while 6,45,025 dropped out in 2016.
The number stood at 5,35,494 last year. The board barred 1,277 principals from being appointed as centre superintendents in February 2016, after rampant cheating in the previous academic year.