By IANS
Lucknow : The Uttar Pradesh government Wednesday decided to end the existing system of students taking the board exams in their own schools to check cheating during examinations.
As per a government order, the 'self examination' system has been banned with immediate effect, announced state Education Minister Jaiveer Singh.
"We had to ban the system in view of reports of gross misuse whereby use of unfair means had become rampant," he told reporters.
Singh added: "What substantiated the reports was the fact that an unusually high number of candidates were successful in the Class 10 and 12 examinations last year."
The self examination system was introduced by former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.
He had justified it on the grounds that it would be unsafe and inconvenient for girls to trudge for miles to reach their centres away from their villages.
Prior to Yadav's return to power for the third time in 2004, the overall results stood at just about 40 percent at the Class 10 level and 70 percent in Class 12.
However, they shot up to 74 percent in Class 10 and 89 percent in Class 12 soon after the self examination system was introduced.
Asked about the trouble posed to girls, Singh said: "We will ensure that the centres are not located far away from the villages so that girls don't have to travel a long distance and be exposed to various hazards."