In 5 days, over 4.12L skip UP Board exams

LUCKNOW: More than 4.12 lakh students have skipped the high school and intermediate examinations in the first five days of the UP Board exams.

On Monday, 970 high school examinees and 4,398 Intermediate examinees did not turn up to write their papers. An official said the number would increase further as figures from remote districts were being compiled.

In 2018, 12.5 lakh examinees left the exam midway while in 2019 the number came down to 6.69 lakh.

Last year, after the first two days of the examinations, only 40,392 students skipped the papers.

The figure included 20,674 students who did not turn up to write their paper on the first day.

As many as 193 students were caught using unfair means including 13 on Monday in the ongoing examination, said

Neena Srivastava, secretary, UP Board.

Police registered FIRs against 77 people, including 18 examinees, for wrongdoings in the examination.

The high school examinations that commenced from Tuesday would conclude on March 3 in a record 12 days while the Intermediate examination that started on Tuesday would end on March 6, in a span of just 15 days.

For the first time, the UP Board has introduced four different sets of coloured and stitched answer sheets in about 18-20 districts marked as ‘sensitive’.

Of these, two sets of coloured answer sheets are being used in high school examination in the identified districts while the other two are being provided to Class 12 examinees.

Officials said the coloured answer sheets would deter examinees from getting them replaced with pre-written copies.