A record 6.5 lakh students out of about 66.33 lakh enrolled for the High School and Intermediate of the Uttar Pradesh Board did not appear for exams or left it mid-way following Yogi Adityanath government’s unprecedented measures to check mass copying since the exams began on February 6.

For the first time in the history of UP Board exams, which is the biggest in the world in terms of number of students, the Yogi Adityanath government has deployed Special Task Force (STF) and Local Intelligence (LIU) sleuths in plainclothes at the examination centres to check mass copying.

Only those schools and colleges were allowed to become exam centres which had CCTV cameras installed in classrooms. All 8,549 examination centres conducting exams have CCTV cameras. A software was used to eliminate anomalies and corruption in centre allotment.

Aadhaar cards were made compulsory for students appearing in board exams to check bogus students and ‘Munna Bhais’ appear in exams. Besides flying squads and special teams of police and education department officials, Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, who is also state Education Minister, is personally conducting surprise raids across state to curb mass copying.

Sharma admitted that one of the main reasons for students dropping out was steps taken by the BJP government to curb mass copying. “We will investigate to ascertain the reasons. If they dropped out due to fear of being caught, then let it be. Our government will not allow use of unfair means in any exams,” said Sharma.

Due to these unprecedented measures, about 1.80 lakh students did not appear in the exam when it began on February 6. In the last four days, over 6.5 lakh students have dropped out.