UP Board’s high school and intermediate examinations 2023 began at 8,753 centers spread across 75 districts of the state amidst tight security, on Thursday. Strict anti-copying measures undertaken on the orders of the state government saw over 4 lakh students skipping the exam on the very first day.
As many as 242 exam centres of the state have been categorised as “very sensitive” and 936 as “sensitive”. The state government had deputed police as well as personnel of the local intelligence unit (LIU) and special task force (STF) of the state police for smooth and fair conduct of the exams.
On the first day, the examination of High School Hindi and Elementary Hindi and Intermediate Military Science was conducted in the morning shift from 8am to 11.15 am while in the second shift from 2pm to 5.15 pm, examination of Intermediate Hindi and General Hindi were held.
Out of the 58,85,745 students (31,16,487 of class 10 and 27,69,258 of class 12) who have registered for the high school and intermediate examinations, 32,46,780 are boys while 26,38,965 are girls.
UP Board secretary Divyakant Shukla said that the exam passed off peacefully in all the districts on the first day and no report of any major untoward incident was received from anywhere in the state.
{{/usCountry}}UP Board secretary Divyakant Shukla said that the exam passed off peacefully in all the districts on the first day and no report of any major untoward incident was received from anywhere in the state.
{{/usCountry}}As per reports received at the UP Board headquarters from the 75 districts, as many as 2,18,189 students out of the total registered 31,14,224 skipped the exam in the first shift itself. Those who remained absent in the first shift included 2,17,702 out of 31,08,584 of high school and 487 out of the total registered 5,640 of intermediate students.
In the second shift also, 1,83,865 intermediate students out of the total registered 25,80,544 skipped the exam.
On the first day a total of nine proxy candidates were nabbed, five in Ghazipur and one each in Mathura, Jaunpur, Bulandshahr and Lucknow. “FIRs are being registered against these nine individuals,” board officials said.
A total of 11 students were also caught cheating in the exam on the first day including seven boys and three girls of high school and one boy of intermediate, they added.
In the first shift, FIR was registered against Yogendra Yadav, principal of Shri Suchit Nandan Inter College, Vishanpura of Ghazipur for facilitating use of unfair means in the exam, officials shared.
To conduct the exams in a fair manner, 1,390 sector magistrates, 455 zonal magistrates, 521 mobile teams and 75 state-level supervisory officers were deployed for inspection and supervision of examination centres, board officials said.
To ensure copying does not take place, CCTV cameras, with 3 lakh voice recorders have been installed in 1.43 lakh examination rooms of all 8,753 examination centres across the state that include 540 government institutions, and 3,523 private and 4,690 unaided colleges.
Online monitoring of the exam centres is also being done from the control room set up in the District School Inspector’s offices besides a central state-level control room in Lucknow. Officials shared that the packaging of question papers and answer sheets have been done in tamper-proof envelopes in four layers this time.
For the first time this year, stitched answer sheets have also been arranged in all the districts of the state. The QR code and logo of the board have been printed on the answer sheets printed in four colours. For the first time in high school, the examination of 20 marks multiple-choice questions is being conducted on an OMR sheet.
A total of 170 jailed prisoners are also registered to appear in the UP Board exams this year. Of them, 79 are registered to write the high school exam while 91 for the intermediate exam.
The first day also saw Minister of State for secondary education (Independent charge) Gulab Devi visiting Bhartiya Municipal Girls Inter College in Sambhal district and presenting examinees with flowers and sweets while wishing them all the best. Principal secretary (secondary education) Deepak Kumar also inspected SN Shiksha Niketan Inter College of Babuganj and Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Inter College of Saivyadhani in Rae Bareli besides Nav Jeevan Inter College in Mohanlalganj, Lucknow to ensure proper and smooth conduct of the exams on the first day.