Nearly 7.8 lakh students have dropped out of the ongoing Class X and XII examinations of the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP), also known as the UP Board. On Monday, March 28, an eye-opening 2.9 lakh Class X and XII students chose to remain absent for their exams. Class X and XII students had Computer and Geography exams respectively on Monday.

According to official sources, the 7.8 lakh figure has crossed the total dropout numbers recorded in 2020 (4.8 lakh) and 2019 (6.5 lakh). There were no exams in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The UP Board exams began on March 24.

In fact, the number of students skipping the exam so far is the highest in almost a decade. In 2013, 5.6 lakh absentees were recorded by UPMSP, the parishad which conducts the exams. The UP Board 2022 examinations saw 4.1 lakh students missing the examinations on day one when Hindi exam was slatted for both Classes X and XII.

UPMSP saw over 70,200 students not attending their languages paper which was held on March 26. The languages include Urdu, Tamil, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, Punjabi, Nepali and so on.

The high numbers have now forced officials to probe the reasons for dropouts. Additional Chief Secretary, Secondary Education, Aradhana Shukla has directed the UPMSP secretary to constitute a committee and involve the district inspector of schools to ascertain the circumstances that made students leave their exams even after filling the forms.

However, officials said they feel the high dropout numbers are due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected people's financial situation. "This could be an important reason other than strict security measures which are in place to curb the cheating menace," said a senior official.