UP Board exams to begin from March 1

A total of 63,19,238 students are likely to sit in the examinations — an overall increase of more than five lakh from this year.

Announcing the High School and Intermediate Examination Scheme-2012,Board Secretary Prabha Tripathi told reporters today that the high school examinations would be completed in 14 working days,while the intermediate examinations will go on for 25 working days. The practical examinations in the subjects concerned are likely to begin around January 15,the final datesheet for which will be announced in a couple of days.

Asked about the possibility of the dates of the examinations clashing with election dates,Tripathi said: “We have informed the Election Commission in advance that we are going to hold examinations between March 1 and April 4. Still,as and when the date for election is announced,we will avoid any clash by postponing the particular examination by about a week,if need be.”

To a query on whether teachers would be able to take the responsibility of an election duty,as well as conducting the examinations in case they are held simultaneously,Tripathi said that the authorities were aware about the significance of conducting the Board examinations on time and,hence,the teachers “would not be disturbed”.

Another senior official added that,in case the elections were held in February,teachers would be available for election duty. “As it is,examination-related works are in advanced stages of completion. At the end of the academic session,there is not much academic activity,” said the official.

The official added that already 75 per cent of the work — related to printing of answer sheets,all of which will have a serial number — has been completed and the task of sending them to various regional offices is already in the process. Nearly 9,000 examination centres will also be soon finalised,he added.

With some of the new measures introduced in the examinations for 2012,the board is hoping that the performance of students will increase and there would be lesser instances of cheating at a mass scale.

Tripathi said: “Mobile vigilance squad right from the centre level to the divisional level will be deployed. Also,we are trying to convince the students that they need not take to unfair means as the test will be for 70 marks only. Under the new rule,30 marks have been fixed for internal evaluation.”

This time around,girl students in the city area will have the facility of “home centre” in case their school is declared as an examination centre. Earlier,this facility was available only to the schools in rural areas. Also,the students will get extra 15 minutes for reading the question papers. Thus,the normal examination duration would be three hours and 15 minutes. Moreover,the physically challenged will get an hour extra,at the rate of 20 minutes per hour for a three-hour paper.