PRAYAGRAJ, March 15 -- In a move to promote digitisation, the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UP Board) has introduced a pilot project in five districts. Under this project, marks given during the evaluation of High School and Intermediate answer sheets will be uploaded online to the Board's portal along with the existing manual system. The step is intended to improve transparency and accelerate the result preparation process. The districts include Prayagraj, Meerut, Bareilly, Varanasi, and Gorakhpur. The evaluation of answer sheets for the UP Board High School and Intermediate examinations-2026 will begin on March 18 at 250 evaluation centres across the state UP Board secretary Bhagwati Singh, in a missive dated March 12 (a copy of which is with HT), directed district inspectors of schools (DIoSs) and evaluation centre heads in the pilot districts to ensure that marks entered on award blanks are simultaneously uploaded on the portal. To facilitate the process, computer operators will be hired through outsourcing in the five selected districts, Singh said. "The marks obtained on the award blank will be uploaded online accurately and with special care. For verification and matching of the marks, knowledgeable teachers or assistants will be appointed as required along with the computer operator," the missive said. It further instructed that the deputy controller or principal of the evaluation centre will directly supervise the work to prevent any errors while uploading marks on the website. In the remaining districts, the existing system will continue, under which award blanks are submitted to the regional offices. These are then handed over to a specially hired computer agency that uploads the marks online after cross-checking them with the help of Board officials before the final results are prepared. For the five districts selected under the pilot project, instructions have been issued to immediately inform the deputy secretary of the concerned regional office via letter if any error is detected after uploading the marks. After the marks are uploaded online, the OMR award blank will be carefully sealed in the designated envelope to ensure it is not folded or damaged. The sealed envelopes containing the OMR award blank/CC-16 will then be submitted to the concerned regional office as per the schedule fixed by the Board, as done earlier, officials said....