Prayagraj: The High School and Intermediate examinations conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Board (UP Board) concluded successfully across the state on Thursday.Nearly 26 lakh candidates appeared for the High School examinations while around 24.5 lakh took the Intermediate examinations this year. “Despite attempts by copying mafias, solver gangs, proxy candidates and other disruptive elements, the board managed to conduct the examinations in a controlled and transparent environment,” board secretary Bhagwati Singh said. For the first time, mobile network jammers were installed at 20 examination centres in four districts—Prayagraj, Kaushambi, Ghazipur and Jaunpur—to prevent the misuse of electronic devices during examinations. During the examinations, show-cause notices were issued to 16 centres in 12 districts for failing to comply with standard operating procedures. Additionally, complaints related to copying were received from 17 centres in 11 districts. Singh said to ensure the sanctity of the examinations, elaborate security arrangements were made for question papers and examination centres. “The exams were conducted at 8,033 centres covering nearly 1.22 lakh rooms and campuses. These locations were equipped with over 2.89 lakh CCTV cameras fitted with voice recorders, enabling 24×7 online monitoring. Strict vigilance helped authorities detect only 49 cases of proxy candidates across the state. FIRs were lodged in all such cases under the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024. Additionally, 18 candidates were caught using unfair means,” Singh said. A multi-layer monitoring system was put in place to supervise the examination process. Control rooms were established in every district while a state-level control room operated from a camp office in Lucknow. Continuous monitoring was also carried out through command and control centres set up at the board headquarters in Prayagraj and at its regional offices in Meerut, Bareilly, Prayagraj, Varanasi and Gorakhpur. The board also introduced several other security innovations this year. Reserve sets of question papers for all subjects were made available at all examination centres. For the first time, answer sheets were printed in A4 portrait format. The pages included micro-printed margin lines bearing the board’s markings to prevent tampering. To further strengthen security, answer booklets were printed with QR codes, serial numbers, page numbers and the board’s logo on each page. The stitched answer booklets were also produced in four different colours to make identification and monitoring easier. In another significant step, marks of Intermediate practical examinations were uploaded online by examiners through a dedicated portal and mobile app. To counter misinformation on social media, the board also constituted a Quick Response Team at its headquarters. The team monitored online platforms during the examination period and took action against YouTube channels that circulated misleading or edited question papers claiming them to be leaked board papers. FIRs were registered against such channels. Singh said the evaluation of answer sheets will be carried out from March 18 to April 1 at 250 evaluation centres across the state. Answer booklets will be dispatched from 75 collection centres between March 15 and March 17, with round-the-clock armed police deployment at evaluation centres to ensure security. For the evaluation of High School answer sheets, around 4,300 head examiners, 8,550 deputy head examiners and 83,800 examiners were appointed. Similarly, at the Intermediate level, about 2,590 head examiners, 5,300 deputy head examiners and 48,990 examiners were assigned evaluation duties.
