UP Board 2024 exams end: 48 copycats ‘failed’ this year, courtesy elaborate CCTV vigil

Despite the fact that a mammoth 55.25 lakh students had registered for 2024 UP Board Class 10 and 12 examinations, fewer than 50 copycats were caught during the annual exercise that came to an end on Saturday (March 9), courtesy heightened security arrangements.

More than 2.90 lakh CCTV cameras with voice recorders were installed in 1.35 lakh examination rooms at 8,265 centres that helped in maintaining the sanctity of the examinations that were completed in a record 12 working days.

“To be precise, there has been a one third dip in the number of copycats and imposters who appeared in the UP Board examination. Only 48 copycats were held during this year’s exam against last year’s 127. Likewise, only 37 imposters were caught against last year’s 133,” said UP Board secretary Dibyakant Shukla.

“Against the last year’s total of 4,50,011 candidates, including 2,52,833 of high school and 1,97,198 of intermediate who skipped the exam, this year 3,24, 008 candidates, including 1,84,986 of high school and 1,39,022 of intermediate, skipped the exam,” he said.

To conduct a cheating-free and transparent examination, the Board of Secondary Education had made impenetrable security arrangements for question papers by thwarting the efforts of the copying mafia, fake examinees and unruly elements who lowered the sanctity of the exam.

The board officials claim that with dedicated and coordinated efforts, the 2024 board examinations were conducted without cheating and in a peaceful atmosphere. The board was able to conduct copying free examination with the introduction of 24×7 online monitoring of examination centres and strong rooms.

Besides, one command and control centre was established in the Secondary Education Council headquarters, Prayagraj, and all five regional offices of the council— Meerut, Bareilly, Prayagraj, Varanasi and Gorakhpur—for the first time.

For foolproof security of the question papers before placing them in the strong rooms of the examination centres, the connectivity of the strong room with the command and control centre of the council headquarters in Prayagraj was thoroughly checked, Shukla said.

The CCTV cameras of 455 examination centres that were faulty were replaced to ensure that the CCTV cameras of the strong rooms remained visible 24×7 in every situation.

Round-the-clock online monitoring of all the examination centres and their strong rooms was done through 180 employees appointed in three shifts. The strong rooms were also monitored 24×7 from the command and control centres of the five regional offices.

Additionally, teams of officers were formed in all districts and the strong rooms of all the examination centres were inspected at night due to which the purity of question papers remained intact.

To ensure that the examination can be conducted without cheating and with integrity, 21 centres where suspicious activities came to fore in the examination halls were monitored during the examination period by the control room set up at the state level and the command and control centres of the council headquarters and regional offices.

While issuing several notices, a clear message was given that strictest action would be taken if any attempt was made to influence the integrity of the examinations. In the same sequence, when a student from Maa Chandrawali Ramjilal Inter College, Nagla Bahrawati, Agra ran away with the answer sheet, the concerned school was debarred (blacklisted) due to the laxity of the school.

Another school in Agra district, Shri Atar Singh Inter College, Rojauli, where an abortive bid was made to influence the integrity of the exam by sending the question paper on a WhatsApp group 1 hour and 11 minutes after the commencement of the examination, all the accused, including Vinay Chaudhary, a school staff, was arrested and sent to jail and the board also decided to cancel the recognition of that school.

To eliminate the possibility of swapping of answer sheets and their inside pages, along with printing of protective QR code and serial numbers on the answer sheets, the council’s logo and page number on each page were printed for the first time. Also, stitched answer sheets were prepared in four different colours unlike last year.

To prevent unruly elements from spreading any kind of misleading news on social media, a quick response team (QRT) was formed at the UP Board headquarters that kept a vigil on misleading news and resolved it quickly.

Efforts were made to ensure the integrity of the examinations by micro planning at every level in a systematic manner which is evident from the year wise details of incidents occurring in different years. As a result, this is the second consecutive year when the board did not have to reschedule any exam.