Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today emphasised on the need to make examinations simpler after over 10 lakh examinees skipped the state board tests in the last four days, saying a fear of exams has been created among students.
The sharp dip in the figure comes in the wake of steps taken by the Uttar Pradesh government against the education mafia that aid in the use of unfair means.
"When we said let's conduct a cheating-free exam (then) 10 lakhs students dropped out. This is the figure until now. I don't know what will happen in future," Adityanath said.
A fear of exams is being created among students, the chief minister said.
"We are observing and we will not leave it at this. It is necessary to think on how exams could be further simplified," he said.
The chief minister noted that exams should not be looked upon as a challenge but as a part of the daily routine. He gave an example of a kanwar yatra from Ghaziabad-Haridwar in which, he claimed, over 4 crore people took part last year.
"When I took stock of the situation, I was told that several instructions had been given to avoid any untoward incident. The officials said we have stopped the use of mikes, conches and bells," he said.
Adityanath said he asked the officials why were they trying to impose a ban on the yatra. He said the officials that its route was passing through sensitive areas and it was difficult to man them.
"I said permit people to use mike, conches and bells as per the Supreme Court guidelines. Inspire people so that they themselves welcome the yatra and be part of it," Yogi said, adding that there were no disturbances during the procession.
He asserted that had the government put barriers then it would not have been easy to undertake the pilgrimage.
So, parents and teachers should not impose any kind of barriers on students and provide them with a conducive climate to cope with exams, he said drawing a parallel with the pilgrimage.
The Uttar Pradesh chief minister claimed that nearly six lakh youths had enrolled for a skill development programme in the last 10 months. Of these 2.5 lakh youth cleared the tests and more than 1.4 lakh youths got placement and were earning between Rs 15,000 to 40,000 sitting in villages.
He said use of technology in 14,000 ration shops in the state was helping to save of Rs 35 crore a month.
