UP Board results: May 19 last date to apply for scrutiny

Crackdown on copying mafia, use of technology, quick declaration of results among the factors behind the UP Board's new success story

- HT Correspondent

LUCKNOW: The over 100-year-old Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad, popularly called the UP Board, used to be known for all the wrong reasons from mass copying to late sessions in the past. Now, it has undergone a remarkable transformation and gave the high school and Intermediate examination results in 43 days this year with a healthy pass percentage of 90.11% in Class 10 and 81.15% in Class 12.

The time span of the exam, which was about a month earlier, has come down to 13 working days.

The Board, which now conducts the world's biggest examination, has scripted this makeover, powered by a raft of strong measures, including a crackdown on the copying mafia, the use of technology and CCTV cameras etc.

The examination exercise has comprised over 50 lakh students for the last many years at the secondary level.

Over the years, the state government and UP's Board decisions of doing away with outdated or irrelevant provisions in keeping with the current times have directly impacted around 12.5 million (1.25 crore) students enrolled in over 29,210 schools (Classes 9 to 12) affiliated to the board across 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh, an official said.

As the then Uttar Pradesh education minister Rajnath Singh had introduced the Anti-Copying Act in 1992, making the use of unfair means in examinations a non-bailable cognizable offence. It was the brainchild of the then chief minister Kalyan Singh who, in his first term, had taken a vow to finish the mafia raj — which included the exam copying mafia. The provisions of the stringent law aimed at curbing mass copying in examinations also included handcuffing of students who were to be sent to jail.

It became a law after it was passed by the Uttar Pradesh assembly, an official said.