UP Board Exams 2019: Amid anti-cheating drive, over 40,000 students skip papers

Amid strict measures to ensure cheating-free examinations, over 40,000 students, out of 58 lakh registered for the ongoing Uttar Pradesh Board examinations, have reportedly failed to appear in the last two days. While a total of 20,674 students skipped their paper on the first day of the examination, the remaining 19,718 candidates dropped out of the exams on the second day. Out of 58,06,922 students, 31,95,603 were registered for high school and 26,11,319 for intermediate exams.

"Around 40,392 candidates did not turn up to write their examinations. This is the number that we have tabulated after compiling students’ attendance on the completion of first two days of the exams," the statistics released by the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad read.

However, Neena Srivastava, secretary, UP Board, could not confirm whether the strict anti-cheating drive has led to students aborting their examinations. "We can not say exactly if it is due to strict measures put in place to put an end to copying," Srivastava was quoted by the Hindustan Times as saying.

From 2018 onwards, the Yogi Adityanath government, which had vowed to prevent students from following unfair means, has been deploying a heavy number of Special Task Force (STF), asking them to keep copying mafia away from the examination centres. Invigilation staff, sector and zonal magistrates have been also deputed at examination centres to avoid untoward incidents.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday also directed all district magistrates and district inspector of schools to remain vigilant against copying mafia in and around the examination centres.

Last year too, a record 10,44,619 students, out of 66 lakh who had registered, aborted their UP Board exams midway, including in subjects like Hindi and home science. This year, the students have skipped their Music and Agriculture papers so far.

Post the government's anti-cheating drive, the registration for 2019 UP Board examinations witnessed a sharp fall of about 9 lakh students as compared to the last year. For the first time, the board is trying to complete the UP Board examinations in 16 working days, which would be a record in itself.