Prayagraj: The Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Board (UP Board), which conducts one of the largest public examinations in the world, is set to begin its High School and Intermediate examinations from Wednesday, with a staggering 5,337,778 students registered this year. Of these, 2,761,696 students will appear for the Class 10 exams and 2,576,082 for Class 12. Remarkably, the total number of candidates exceeds the population of 74 countries, highlighting the extraordinary scale of the examination process in Uttar Pradesh. Globally, around 195 countries are recognised by the United Nations, and the fact that the number of UP Board examinees alone surpasses the population of more than one-third of them underscores the magnitude of the exercise. The examinations will be conducted at 8,033 centres across the state, requiring massive logistical planning, security arrangements, and administrative coordination. Interestingly, while the numbers remain enormous, there has been a decline compared to previous years. In 2018, a record 66.37 lakh candidates registered for the board examinations. Officials attribute the subsequent drop to stricter anti-cheating measures and tighter monitoring systems, which reduced the influx of students allegedly seeking to pass exams through unfair means. The journey of the UP Board reflects a dramatic transformation over the past century. Established in 1921, the Board conducted its first public examination in 1923 with just 5,744 candidates, 5,655 for High School and 89 for Intermediate. At that time, 179 centres were set up for Class 10 and a single centre for Class 12. Over the decades, the number of examinees steadily increased, turning the board into the world’s largest school-level examination-conducting body. From a few thousand candidates in the early 20th century to over 53 lakh this year, the UP Board’s evolution mirrors the expansion of access to secondary education in India’s most populous state. As the examinations commence on Feb 18, authorities face the formidable task of ensuring the smooth, fair, and transparent conduct of an assessment exercise larger than the population of dozens of nations.
