Mass Cheating: UP Board's English Paper Cancelled at Two Mathura Centres

Mathura: The Class 10 English examination of Uttar Pradesh Board was cancelled at two centres of Mathura district on Monday following the reports of alleged mass cheating.

While cancelling the exam, the authorities have also recommended blacklisting of the two centres where the cheating took place. However, the date of re-examination will be finalised once all the examinations are over, they said.

District Inspector of Schools, I P Singh Solanki, said action has also been taken against invigilators in these centres and their principals have been asked to submit a

report on the action taken against the teachers there.

"Since mass copying was detected during the English paper of Class 10 in Vachvan Behari Inter college and Sardar Patel Inter college in the district, the examination held in these centres has been cancelled," Solanki said.

So far 61 students were caught cheating in various examinations, he said, adding that 8 centre superintendents and 12 teachers found "incapable" of controlling cheating have been replaced.

The official said 16 centres have been debarred while an FIR against 7 has been registered.

The number of dropouts this year is over 13,000, an all-time record for the district, he said.

7,802 examinees in High School and 5,708 in the Intermediate level of the UP board have dropped out this year, Solanki said.

Reacting over the incident, Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said: We have seen some reports of mass cheating, this is totally unacceptable... it is unfortunate and we will work on it. We will come up with a concrete plan after discussing the issue with the states.

Following the reports of mass copying incidents in UP Board examinations, a WhatsApp number 9454457241 has been released for registering cheating related complaints in order to keep a check on such incidents.

(With PTI inputs)