Chief Minister Yogi orders ‘foolproof’ arrangements to conduct cheating-free exams

Ensuring cheating-free Uttar Pradesh board examinations with utmost transparency, the Yogi Adityanath government has made foolproof arrangements, ranging from setting up two control rooms for live monitoring of each examination centre to placing strict rules and regulations, stated an official release.

Moreover, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has issued firm instructions, including the imposition of the National Security Act (NSA) against those involved in unfair practices during the examinations. An FIR will also be lodged against the room invigilators and centre administrators involved in activities of cheating.

“For the schools where any disturbance is found in online monitoring, the nodal officer has been made responsible to inquire regarding the same by establishing contact with the administrator of the concerned examination centre,” it read.

The State board examinations are set to begin on February 16.

As per an official release, two control rooms have been set up in Lucknow for monitoring the examination. The first control room is working as a camp office in the Secondary Education department while the second has been set up in Vidya Samiksha Kendra.

Also Read | U.P. issues guidelines for ‘no cheating’ exams, says invigilators can’t use mobile or calculators

“Here, the nodal officers have been given divisional responsibility. For example, the officer looking after the Varanasi division is monitoring online the arrangement of each examination centre in each district of that division,” it read.

“Apart from the State level, there are many other layers of monitoring. A control room has also been set up in all 75 districts, which is directly monitoring the examination centres of their districts online,” it read.

For monitoring of examinations, a supervisor has been appointed in all 75 districts of the state, who will review the entire examination and report to the government.

Apart from this, more than 26,000 people have been engaged in the arrangements of the centre. Apart from the centre administrator, an external centre administrator and static magistrate have been appointed in each of these centres. Not only this, 1390 sector magistrates, 455 zonal magistrates, and 521 mobile teams have also been deployed.

It is noteworthy that there are 16 districts in the State which have been kept in the most sensitive category. These include Ballia, Azamgarh, Mau, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Jaunpur, Deoria, Gonda, Mathura, Aligarh, Mainpuri, Etah, Baghpat, Hardoi, Prayagraj and Kaushambi. At the same time, a total of 936 sensitive and 242 highly sensitive examination centres have been identified in the State.

As per an official release, with the system of online centre determination implemented in 2018, the number of examination centres has decreased by about 25% due to the creation of examination centres by software.

In the past years, intermediate examinations have been conducted on 25 working days, but this time the examinations will be conducted starting from February 16 till March 4 i.e. in a total of 14 working days.

About three lakh CCTV cameras with voice recorders, DVR router devices and high-speed internet connections have been provided in about 1.43 lakh examination rooms of all examination centres, stated an official release. “Arrangements have been made for live monitoring of all 8,753 examination centres through webcasting in all 75 districts and through the control and monitoring centre at the State level. STF and LIU have been activated to monitor all sensitive and highly sensitive examination centres,” it read.

In view of the security arrangement of question papers at the examination centres, for the first time, a strong room has been set up for the maintenance of question papers in a double lock almirah in a secure room separate from the principal’s room.

Except for the main entrance of the strong room, all other doors and windows have been sealed.

Centre Administrator, Additional Centre Administrator and Static Magistrate have been made jointly responsible for the maintenance, handling and opening of question paper envelopes.

For the first time, packaging has been done in tamper-proof envelopes in four layers.

“For the first time this year, stitched answer sheets have 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,” it read.

This time, 170 jailed prisoners will also appear in the UP board exams. Centres have been made in different districts for the examination. 79 candidates are registered in high school and 91 in intermediate, stated an official release. Last time, 116 candidates were registered in high school and 116 in intermediate. This time the maximum number of 49 prisoners are from District Jail Ghaziabad. These include 23 high school and 26 intermediate candidates.