Around 7.8 lakh students have dropped out of the ongoing class 10 and 12 examinations of the Uttar Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (UPMSP), also known as UP Board. On Monday, 2.9 lakh Class 10 and 12 students skipped their exams.
On Monday, the students of classes 10 and 12 had computer and geography exams respectively. According to official sources, the figure of 7.8 lakhs has crossed the total dropouts recorded in 2020 (4.8 lakh) and 2019 (6.5 lakh).
The examination was not held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 epidemic. The UP Board exam started on March 24. In fact, the number of students who have dropped out of the exam so far is the highest in almost a decade. In 2013, 5.6 lakh absences were recorded by UPMSP, which conducts the exam.
4.1 lakh students missing on the first day:-
4.1 lakh students had missed the exam on the first day of the UP Board 2022 exams when Hindi was to be held for both class 10th and 12.
The UPMSP noticed that over 70,200 students did not appear for their language paper, which was held on March 26. The languages include Urdu, Tamil, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, Punjabi, Nepali, etc. The high numbers have now forced the authorities to investigate the reasons for dropping out of school.
Additional Chief Secretary, Secondary Education, Aradhana Shukla has directed the UPMSP secretary to constitute a committee and include the District Inspector of Schools to find out the circumstances due to which students leave their exams even after filling the forms.
However, officials said they feel that the high dropouts are due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has affected the financial condition of the people. “This could be an important factor, apart from the stringent security measures to curb the problem of fraud,” a senior official said.