Four-step process to check cheating in UP Board exams

LUCKNOW: A new software had been designed and a four-step process initiated to check copying in the Uttar Pradesh board exams beginning from February 7, said deputy CM Dinesh Sharma. Centres which reported maximum cases of cheating in the past would be strictly monitored, he said.

“The intention of the UP government is to curtail use of unfair means by students while making efforts to improve the quality of education. Owing to the state government’s efforts , use of unfair means has stopped and the number of students studying in government schools has increased by 18-20% ,” said Sharma, who also holds the portfolio of secondary and higher education.

He said the UP Board exams would begin on February 7 and be conducted in the next 16 working days. “If the exams are held in a shorter duration, it will also lead to cutting the cost incurred in conducting them” he said.

The Adityanath government, he said, had taken a lot of steps to check cheating in exams.

“Before the BJP came to power in UP, the prevailing atmosphere in the state prompted PM Narendra Modi to say that tenders were floated in UP for copying. After the BJP came to power in UP, steps have been taken to curtail the evil practice,” the deputy CM said. Sharma said copying was so rampant in the past that students from specific states were kept together at one exam centre.

“At these centres, stringent measures were initiated to ensure that unfair means were not used . Last year, strict vigil was maintained on suspicious centres. As a result, 67 people were arrested from a place. A press printing answer sheets was unearthed in Jaunpur, while a gang involved in leakage of question papers was busted in Hardoi. Impersonators were caught in Kaushambi and Aligarh,” he said.

He said all examination centre must have CCTVs, separate toilets for boys and girls and boundary walls. Static magistrates would be posted at every centre. “We have taken help of STF at a few places which have earned disrepute,” the deputy CM said.