UP Board: Examinee gets 2 marks in answer copy, 23 in marksheet

A confidential OMR sheet and the marksheet of a UP Board high school examinee have gone viral on the social media revealing discrepancy in the award of marks.

The two documents reveal that the student, who was originally awarded only two marks out of 70 in science (theory) on ‘award blank’ (the OMR sheet on which evaluators fill up the column of marks obtained by candidates), finally got 23 marks in the marksheet.

HT, however, could not independently verify the authenticity of the documents.

Secretary, UP Board, Neena Srivastava said: “It is unfortunate that confidential documents of the Board have been made public. A probe will be ordered into the matter and strict action will be taken against the guilty.”

According to UP Board moderation rules, a high school examinee can be awarded a total of 20 grace marks in proportion of 5 marks each in four different subjects, depending upon the requirement besides 5 to 8 marks of moderation.

As per rules in intermediate, a maximum of 18 grace marks can be given to a candidate failing in one subject or the same marks can be divided as per requirement in maximum of four subjects.

A UP Board official familiar with the developments said the pictures might have been clicked and uploaded on social media by some Board official.

“The authorities have taken the matter seriously. Strict action will follow,” he said.

Another Board official said in view of strict anti-copying measures, the Board authorities had been expecting a drastic decline in pass percentage in high school and intermediate examinations. “Evaluators had also confirmed a sharp decline in results as many candidates failed to perform well,” he said.

He alleged that in an attempt to improve its image, the Board authorities decided to increase marks of all examinees as part of its moderation policy while finalising the results.