Teachers fail to show up again for Boards

BAREILLY: Several teachers once again failed to show up for invigilation duty at 126 exam centres across the district for the UP board exam, forcing schools to deploy clerks and Class IV employees for the task.
The absence of invigilators is apparently spurring students to try their luck in using unfair means as two cases of cheating were caught by flying squads during the Science I exam on Monday in Sheeshgarh and Nawabganj blocks.
In Sheeshgarh block, a high school aspirant was nabbed after picture of candidate giving examination did not match with records of officials. Later, it was found that the candidate’s elder sister was solving the paper in her place. An FIR was lodged against the candidate, but she was later released on bail.
District Inspector Of Schools Ashutosh Bhardwaj said, “In spite of lack of resources, we are determined to conduct cheating-free examinations and with each passing day, the tally of primary teachers joining board examination duties as external invigilators is improving.”
He added, “We are keeping a hawk eye on all sensitive centers, making it harder for nakal mafias and others to succeed in their intentions.”
Ruing the lack of adequate number of invigilators, vice principal of RN Tagore Inter College in Cantonment K C Sati said, “After DIOS allotted 1,163 students from a few schools to our exam centre, we had raised demand for around 40 external invigilators before the board exams started. However, today, only 20 external teachers turned up for duty and this is the highest recorded by any centres.”
Sati added that the tally was far better than on the first day of the board exam, on February 19, when even fewer teachers had turned up. The situation was no better at other centres in the city like GSN Inter College and Shri Ram Inter College (Paratashpur). Past trends suggest that centres in rural areas see fewer attendance by teachers, raising questions about the cheating-free exams in far-flung areas.
Basic education officers claimed that they had relieved primary teachers as per the requirement raised by DIOS office for invigilation duty.
Around 5,000 teachers were appointed by DIOS from Madhyamic Shiksha Parishad and Basic Shiksha Adhikari department to conduct marathon UP Board examinations at 126 examination centers across the district. However, as Madhyamic Shiskha Parishad is facing acute shortage of teachers, BSA was asked to relieve primary teachers.
However, BSA teachers failed to turn up for duty at several centres, forcing examination coordinators to push in their own staff, including clerks and other class IV employees. The incident was brought to the notice of DIOS, who later asked BSA to relieve teachers engaged in taking classes in their schools.
BSA, in this regard, also had a joint meeting with all Block Education Officers (BEO’s) on Saturday where he instructed all BEO’s to relieve primary teachers and discharge their duties as external invigilators at allotted centers.