At least 10 lakh student have skipped the state board exams in Uttar Pradesh this year, Chief Minister Adityanath said, according to NDTV.
“When we said let’s conduct a cheating-free exam, 10 lakh students dropped out,” he said at an event on Saturday. “This is the figure until now. I don’t know what will happen in future.”
The chief minister also called to have the exams made easier. “A fear of exams is being created among students,” he said. “It is necessary to think about how exams could be further simplified.”
There has been extensive absenteeism at the Uttar Pradesh state board exams, which began on February 6. On the first day, more than 1.8 lakh students, of the 67 lakh enrolled for the papers, skipped the Class 10 and Class 12 examinations.
Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, who is also the Uttar Pradesh secondary education minister, had claimed that students were skipping the exams as the government had cracked down on cheating. The Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Board also said “strict measures” against cheating led to the low attendance.
Education officials said CCTV cameras had been installed in exam halls and local intelligence agencies are checking activities of the “education mafia”.
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