Over 45,000 Madarsa Board students - out of a total of 2,41,000 - skipped the exam on the first day in Uttar Pradesh, as the Yogi Adityanath government continues with its crackdown on cheating.

More than 17,000 seminaries come under the Madarsa Board, which largely covers Muslim education from primary to college level.

A total of 2,41,000 Madarsa Board students had registered themselves for the exams of munshi, maulvi, aalim, kamil and fajil this year.

State Minority Affairs Minister Mohsin Raza said that the cheating 'mafia' had collapsed under Adityanath's regime. "That is why students who used unfair means had to skip the exams in big numbers," he added.

On a surprise visit to a Madarsa Board exam centre, Raza found that a student appearing for the exam of fajil - equivalent to a postgraduate course - had not written a single word on his answer sheet, except his name.

When Raza asked him several questions, he was shocked to discover that the student had passed all the previous exams without any knowledge.

The minority affairs department has taken several measures, like installing CCTVs to curb cheating at Madarsa Board exam centres.

Last year, more than 5,000 madarsas shut down after the Yogi government ordered seminaries to enroll themselves on the website of the Madarsa Board.

More than 18,000 students did not appear for the UP Board examinations on the first day this year following the strict measures taken by the state government to curb copying.

A total of 66,37,018 students were registered to appear in this year's UP Board exams. Last year, the overall pass percentage for Class 10 was recorded at 81.18 per cent and in Class 12, 82.62 per cent students were declared successful.

More than 60.61 lakh candidates - 3.4 million for Class 10 and 2.6 million for Class 12 - were registered for high school and intermediate exams in 2017. However, due to strict measures, 594,000 candidates left the exams and 1,862 examinees were caught copying.

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