UP board Class X, XII exams to be held over 16 working days next year

The UP Board of Secondary Education will be conducting Class X and XII exams for the 2018-19 batch over 16 working days next year.

Nina Srivastava, the board secretary, said the decision was taken after a video conference with Deputy CM and Secondary and Higher Education Minister Dinesh Sharma.

Sources at the directorate said that exams for both high school and intermediate will begin on February 7. As per official timetable for 2018, Class X exams had started on February 6 and ended on February 22 this year (15 working days). However, the Class XII exams took place over 30 working days (between Feb 6 and March 12).

Srivastava said there are 36 question papers for the Class X examination, but there are as over 100 for the Class XII exams.

Asked how the exams would be conducted in such a short time, Vinay Kumar Pandey, the board director, said, “The Allahabad office has been drafting the plan. They will soon come up with a blueprint.”

Speaking to The Indian Express, Sharma confirmed that he instructed the board to conduct the exams starting February 7 and finish in 16 working days. He added that senior officials had also been instructed to soon prepare the schedule keeping in mind festivals and Kumbh in February.

“Earlier, these exams used to be stretched for as long as two and half months. We have a plan and will make the timetable accordingly,” said the deputy CM, adding that this year too, they would focus on preventing cheating and plan to install CCTV cameras with voice recording.

The Board took several precautionary measures this year to curb cheating, including installing nearly 1.25 lakh CCTV cameras in 8,549 exam centres across the state.
News Source (Indian Express)