UP Board Exams 2020 begin: ‘Don’t write ‘Om’, religious symbols, keep currency notes’

UP Board Exams 2020 begin today.As per directives of the Board, students will not write anything pertaining to their religion like ‘Om’ or ‘786’. Also, the Board has made it clear that directives had been issued for examinees to refrain from inserting currency notes in answer sheets or action would be initiated against them.

Around 5.61 million students will appear in the high school and intermediate examinations of the UP Board beginning Tuesday.

While 2.586 million students will sit in the intermediate examination, 3.025 million will appear in high school examination.

The high school examination will get over in 12 working days (March 3) while intermediate exams will conclude in 15 days (March 6).

In 2019, the high school examinations concluded in 14 working days, while or intermediate examinations concluded in 16 working days.

In high school, a total of 1.66 million are boys and 1.39 million girls will take the exam.

In Intermediate, a total of 1.463 million boys and 1.121 million girls will appear in the examination.

The Board has announced to introduce many firsts in the examinations this year. Some of them are:

Coloured and stitched answer sheets

This year a number of new initiatives have been put into place to uphold the sanctity of the examination. The UP Board has decided to introduce four different sets of coloured and stitched answer sheets in about 18 districts where examinees are more likely to resort to unfair practices during examination.

Deputy chief minister and secondary education minister Dinesh Sharma said, “We decided to use two sets of coloured answer sheets in high school and another two in intermediate examinations to prevent swapping of answer sheets during examination in sensitive districts.”

Compartment system for intermediate exam

Sharma said from this year compartment system had been introduced for Class 12 (intermediate) examinees also. “At present, the Board has this provision only for high school examinees. But now this facility will be introduced for Class 12 examinees. More than 25 lakh class 12 examinees who will write the examination will benefit from the compartment system,” he told newsperson.

As the Board had introduced NCERT syllabus and examination pattern last year and had done away with the two-paper system, leaving only one paper for students to pass in each subject, it was observed that those who did not fare well in that paper of the subject could not clear the examination, an official explained.

Toll free helpline numbers

The UP board launched two toll free helpline numbers: 1800-180-5310 and 1800-180-5312 for students to get replies of their queries and help them to overcome stress. The helpline numbers to remain active from 8 am to 8 pm.

New twitter handle

Sharma also launched a new twitter handle @upboardexam2020 for real-time speedy transmission of information. Keeping in mind the wide interests of candidates appearing in the High School and Intermediate examination, the Board launched the Twitter service for 2020 examination for speedy resolution of their problems.

Hi-tech control room, 1.90 lakh cameras

A hi-tech control room has also been set up in Lucknow which would be connected to each of the 7,784 examinations centres in 75 districts of state through a network of around 1.90 lakh CCTV cameras. The webcasting of examinations would be done every day which would be monitored by officials in state capital led by Sharma, who is also cabinet minister for secondary education.

Dos and Dont’s

As per directives of the Board, examinees will have to write their roll number on every page of the answer sheet besides they will not write anything pertaining to their religion like ‘Om’ or ‘786’. Also, the Board has made it clear that directives had been issued for examinees to refrain from inserting currency notes in answer sheets or action would be initiated against them.

It may be mentioned that following a series of measures initiated by the Board to check use of unfair means, the number of instances of copying has come down from 3233 in 2018 to 1182 in 2019 board exams. Likewise, while in 2018, 1.25 million examinees skipped the exam midway, in 2019 the number came down to 6.69 lakh examinees.

Don’t fake excuse to avoid exam duty, teachers told

UP Board has warned teachers on examination duties against submitting applications citing lame or fake reasons to get relief from the duty.

According to UP Board’s deputy secretary Shiv Lal, strict instructions had been issued by UP Board director Vinay Kumar Pandey for relieving only those teachers from examination duties who had a genuine medical reason. He informed that teachers if found to have citied fake reason for getting relieved from the responsibility, action would be initiated under regulation 108 and 109 of Section 3 of UP Intermediate Act as the same amounted to dereliction of duties.