UP Board exams: 10% students skip, 26 fake examinees & 9 invigilators nabbed in first four days

As the UP Board High School and Intermediate examinations 2025 progress under stringent anti-copying measures enforced by the state government and Board administration, around 10% of examinees have skipped the exams within the first four days.

According to official records, out of 54,32,519 students enrolled for the Board’s 2025 examinations—including 27,41,674 High School students and 26,90,845 Intermediate students—8,32,566 have been marked absent by invigilators in the first four days of exams held at various centres. The exams, which began on February 24, will conclude on March 12.

Records show that on February 24, a significant 2,72,824 examinees were absent from the Hindi subject exam, which is mandatory for both High School and Intermediate students.

Further, on February 28, the second day of examinations, 1,64,746 students were found to be absent while on the third day on March 1, 2025, a total of 1,81,675 students were marked absent.

On March 3, 1,64,746 examinees were marked absent in both high school and intermediate exams while on March 4, the count was registered at 2,13,321.

Additionally, 41 FIRs have been lodged across different districts against the use of unfair means, and 12 examinees have been caught cheating so far.

A significant 26 fake examinees and 9 fake invigilators have also been nabbed during the ongoing examinations.

Fake invigilators under scanner

According to UP Board secretary Bhagwati Singh, after nine fake invigilators were detected at an examination centre in Prayagraj on Tuesday, efforts are now being made to verify the credentials of invigilators at all centres across the state.

“This could be a new strategy employed by the copying mafia to bypass the stringent anti-cheating measures put in place by the government,” he said.

He added that the detection of a large number of imposters appearing in place of real examinees is a serious challenge that the Board is determined to tackle. “Directives have been issued to verify the identity details of examinees at all centres for every exam,” he stated.

The UP Board’s High School and Intermediate examinations are being monitored under a three-layer hi-tech surveillance system, which includes: A state control room receiving live feeds from all 75 districts, Zoom-in cameras installed outside strong rooms at all 8,041 examination centres, Dedicated control rooms set up in the offices of all District Inspectors of Schools and the Board’s five regional offices.

To prevent any attempts by the copying mafia or collusion by school management at examination centres, the administration has deployed 10,000 high-resolution CCTV cameras streaming live footage to the state control room in Lucknow and zoom-in cameras outside strong rooms at all centres to prevent paper leaks.