After Yogi Adityanath’s massive crackdown on cheating in exams, around 45,000 students did not appear for the exam in Madrassas on the first day. Over 5000 Madrassas shut shop after the UP government had ordered them to register themselves on an online portal to enable the government to monitor them efficiently. Earlier this year, during the state board exams, hundreds and thousands of students had decided to skip their exams as well and more than a thousand were caught cheating in the examination hall. This is in stark contrast to the attitude of Akhilesh Yadav from the Samajwadi Party, who appeared to support the practice of cheating in exams by asserting that “Everybody does a little bit of cheating”.
Yogi Adityanath has been working overdrive to reform the education sector in the state after assuming the seat of Chief Minister. One of his most remarkable decisions has been the introduction of NCERT books and subjects in Madrassas. It was also decided that 70% of the syllabus of the state board will be taken from NCERT and the remaining 30% will be from local volumes. Another decision that is being mulled is a mandatory attendance of 80% for the students of class 9 to 12. Not only that, bags, book, uniforms, shoes and socks are being provided free of cost to students, to encourage them to enroll in schools and gain formal education.
The crackdown in cheating during exams is crucial for the fulfillment of Yogi Adityanath’s vision of ‘Uttam Pradesh’, and is part of his larger vision for the improvement of the education system in the state. A state cannot progress adequately if its children aren’t receiving proper education and the saffron-clad Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh has recognized this fact and is working hard towards improving the state of education in UP.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been hard on law and order ever since the BJP came to power. With encounters being conducted at a furious pace to eliminate gangsters and arresting criminals, even the crackdown on cheating during exams is part of an effort to establish the rule of law by nabbing the cheating mafia that has made a business of profiteering out of this malpractice.
Reformation of the education system is a long term project and the positive effects of Yogi Adityanath’s efforts may not be visible very soon, but they will start yielding results in the long run. Uttar Pradesh has suffered due to the lackadaisical attitude of erstwhile governments towards education, whose sole objective was not to secure the prosperity of the citizens of the state and to ensure their hold on power. It needs to be remembered that it was Mulayam Singh Yadav, the father of Akhilesh Yadav, who abolished the Anti-Copying Act enforced by the Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Kalyan Singh in 1992.
For the development of Uttar Pradesh and for its prosperous future, it is imperative that the organized cheating rackets in the state be dismantled and thus far, the ‘warrior priest’ appears to be on the right track. Combined with the wholesome reforms implemented in the field of education by his government, Yogi Adityanath’s crackdown on organized cheating will go a long way towards building a bright future for the students in the state, who in turn can then make positive contributions towards the welfare of the state.