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The Uttar Pradesh Board, Asia’s largest education authority, has rolled out a major initiative to curb cheating in the 2026 Class 10 and Class 12 exams.

For the first time in its 100-year history, the board has completely overhauled the design of its answer sheets to prevent organized malpractice.

Examinations are scheduled from February 18 to March 12, with more than 52 lakh students registered, including 27,50,945 for high school and 24,79,352 for intermediate.

To meet this demand, nearly 26 million answer sheets will be printed and distributed to districts in January, ahead of the exams.

Last year, the UP Board introduced a five-level monitoring system to reduce cheating, which led to 5 lakh students missing their exams.

Building on that, this year’s answer sheets include enhanced security features designed to block tampering, duplication, or swapping.

According to UP Board Secretary Bhagwati Singh, the layout of the answer sheets has been completely changed, which will completely eliminate the possibility of exchanging answer sheets.

The redesign also includes changes in format, page count, and color to make duplication more difficult:

Intermediate 'A' sheet: 24 pages, first page magenta
Intermediate 'B' sheet: 12 pages, green
High School 'A' sheet: 18 pages, brown
High School 'B' sheet: 12 pages, green

Each page carries the monogram of the Secondary Education Council, ensuring authenticity. The sheets are printed exclusively at government presses in Prayagraj, Lucknow, Varanasi, and Rampur, preventing outside reproduction.

Bhagwati Singh said students will benefit from the new format, noting that maintaining a consistent writing layout will make the process easier and could improve performance.

Officials said these reforms aim to create a secure and fair testing environment, addressing repeated incidents of answer sheet tampering and cheating.

With these measures, the UP Board hopes that the 2026 exams will be conducted with integrity for all students.