All the students from 150 schools in India’s most populous state failed their high school exams

• Every single student in 98 schools failed class X.
• The class XII exams were no better, as all the students in 52 schools failed.
  
• In all, 6.7 million students were slated to appear for the exams - 3.7 million for the class X exams and 3 million for class XII.
• One million students dropped out of the board exams (Class X and XII exams) in 2018.

The results of the Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Board (UPSEB) were declared in India on April 29th and they were truly abysmal. Every single student in 98 schools failed class X. The class XII exams were no better, as all the students in 52 schools failed. The schools in question were a mix of both government and private schools. Class X and XII are high school equivalents in the Indian education system.

"This year strict measures were adopted by the state government to check copying. Apart from it, there is a possibility of only a dozen or so students appearing from such schools so we will decide on the fate of all such educational institutes when the board will reopen," Secretary, UPSEB, Neena Srivastava told the Times of India. She also added that “the board will analyse the results and after that explanation could be sought from principals of these schools in case of a negative report." The board’s office was closed for three days post Sunday.

Reports of incessant cheating over the last few years forced the government to take some strict measures this year. Some of these measures included installing CCTV cameras in examination halls and getting rid of people who used to carry loudspeakers, dictating answers to students. A Special Task Force and local intelligence were also brought in to check activities of the so-called ‘cheating mafia’.

Sources within the mafia told The Times Of India that students had three ‘packages’ available to them to aid them with cheating - students who were equipped with their own cheating material and wrote the papers themselves paid ₹5,000. Those who chose to be dictated the correct answers were charged ₹10,000 and the highest amount of ₹15,000 was charged for students who just marked their attendance and had touts/agents write the exams for them.

This crackdown has, however, led to a mass dropout of students planning to take the exams - says the report. Over one million students dropped out of the board exams (Class X and XII exams) in 2018. All in all, around 6.7 million students were slated to appear for the exams - 3.7 million for the class X exams and 3 million for class XII.

This year, 50 out of a total of 75 districts were declared ‘sensitive’ by UPSEB. In Ghazipur district, not one student in 17 schools passed. Of these, all students in 11 schools failed to clear the class X exam and in six schools, all students of class XII failed to pass. This was closely followed by the Allahabad district where none of the students in six schools passed. There are even instances of schools in bigger cities like the state capital Lucknow and Agra that had not one student clear the exams.