UP Board Exams 2020: Strict ‘digital’ vigil curbs use of unfair means

FAIR UP BOARD EXAMS Exercise particularity effective in rural pockets of Lucknow infamous for their active ‘cheating rackets’.

A few minutes after the UP board examinations began and students started writing at a centre in Malihabad, a speaker installed in a room came to life.

Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma at Park road CCTV control and monitoring centre (HT photo)

“The candidate sitting on third seat of second row, please sit straight,” came the sound from the speaker, alerting every student in the room, specially the one who was trying to turn back.

The voice was from an operator sitting in the control-room monitoring live CCTV camera feeds from every room of every examination centre in the state.

This strict ‘digital’ vigil through a network of cameras curbed the use of unfair means across the state. The exercise was particularity effective in rural pockets of Lucknow which are infamous for their active ‘cheating rackets’.

An education department official said, “No incident of cheating or use of unfair means was reported in Lucknow. No such case was reported even in areas like Mall and Malihabad where use of unfair means was rampant in previous years.”

The Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad of Uttar Pradesh has installed over 1.9 CCTV cameras in exam centres across the state. These advanced cameras have microphone to record the sound of the examination hall and are linked to the speakers through which operators can give alert.

To ease the examination pressure, the UP Board high school examinees were greeted with candies and badges—Hum Taiyyar Hai—on the first day of the examination at Rajkiya Jubilee Inter College near City station on Tuesday, a move that was lauded by many.

Ahead of the arrival of deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma in this examination centre, minister of state for secondary education Gulab Devi and principal secretary Aradhana Shukla reached the centre and distributed toffees to bring smiles on the faces of examinees who looked nervous.

On Wednesday, examinations of Pali, Arabic, Sanskrit and Persian of high school as well as music (vocal), music (instrumental) and dance of intermediate are scheduled to be held in the first half while in the second half, examinations of music (vocal) of high school and vocational and agriculture streams in intermediate are scheduled will be held.