Over 3L students skip UP Board exam

As many as 2.72 lakh candidates stay away from paper on day 3

LUCKNOW: Strict measures put in place to check mass copying resulted in 2.72 lakh candidates skipping their paper on day 3 of the UP Board examinations on Tuesday, said officials.

So far, 3,12,844 candidates have skipped the High School and Intermediate exam this year, as per the data released by UP Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad that conducts the exams.

“On Tuesday, 2,72,452 students did not turn up to write their exam. This is the highest number of students who skipped the paper on a single day this year. Prior to this, 40,392 students had skipped the UP Board exam on its second day on Friday. In all, 3,12,844 students stayed away from the Board exam this year,” said Neena Srivastava, secretary, UP Board.

“This number may further go up as compilation of figures from 75 districts is still on,” she said.

She added, “There could be multiple reasons for such a large number of students staying away from Board exams. This is due to tough measures to check copying and to keep fake students away from appearing in the examinations. Along with CCTV cams, we have introduced voice recorder system to put an end to use of unfair means in the exam.”

On Tuesday, 51 copycats, including 41 Class 10 examinees and 10 from Class 12, were held. Of these, 11 were high school girls. So far, 54 copycats were held in three days of the exams.

Last year, a record 10,44,619 students – nearly 15% of all those who had registered – had skipped the UP Board exams.

Later, deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma claimed that 75% of students, who stayed away from exams, were from other states.

High school students appeared for Hindi and commerce papers while Intermediate candidates wrote elementary Hindi exam on Tuesday.

As many as 32,08,451 students registered for high school exam and 25,27,664 registered for Intermediate exams this year.

Deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma visited many examination centres in Lucknow. He was accompanied by director, secondary education, VK Pandey.

Like last year, the Special Task Force (STF) had been tasked with keeping the copying mafia away from the exam centres. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, in a video conference on Saturday, had asked all district magistrates and district inspectors of schools to remain vigilant against copying mafia.