UP Board exam to begin from March 24, control room to monitor feed from exam centres

A control room will monitor footage from CCTV cameras installed at centres across the state to curb the cheating during the UP school board exams which begins on March 24, officials said.

The state level control room was inaugurated at the Secondary Education Directorate here on Wednesday.

All the exam centres will be monitored closely with help of staff and a total of 2,97,124 CCTV cameras, they said.

The feed from these cameras will be monitored at various command centres, including the state level and 75 district level centres, officials said.

The control room was inaugurated by UP Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra.

The examinations for class 10 and 12, conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Sikhsa Parishad (UPMSP), will be held in two shifts.

Exams in the morning shift will be held between 8 am and 11:15 am while the timings of the evening shift will be from 2 pm to 5:15 pm.

"The control room will receive direct feed from the CCTV cameras installed at the exam centres and strong rooms across the state which will be monitored closely by a team under direct supervision of senior officials.

"The control room will be an essential tool in ensuring free and fair board exams," the Chief Secretary said.

The state government has earlier warned that the stringent National Security Act (NSA) will be slapped against those found using unfair means during the exams.

A total of 27,81,654 students have registered for Class 10 exams this year, of which 12,28,456 are female students and 15,53,198 are boys.

Similarly, a total of 24,11,035 students have registered for Class 12 this year, of which 10,86,835 are female and 13,24,200 are male students.

In all, 51,92,689 students have registered for the UP board exams.

A total of 8,373 exam centres have been made across the state for the exam. Of these 6,398 centres are in rural areas and 1,975 are located in the urban areas.

The state government has declared 861 exam centres 'sensitive' and 254 as 'very sensitive', while 7,258 as have been declared as general.