Pariksha Saathi: Justification

Question 1

Who will use it?

Two sides. Students use it free; sponsors, schools and parents pay. The newspaper's own ad desk and education desk run it.

User	What they get	Pays?
UP Board students, Classes 9 to 12, mostly Hindi-medium	A 10-minute weekly test and a chapter-wise report of which earlier-class skills to review	No, free
Sponsors: coaching institutes, banks, local and national brands	One named weekly slot in front of exam-year families, with QR scans as proof of reach	Yes, per weekly test
Schools and teachers	A class-level gap map every week, without setting or marking a test	Yes, per student per year
Parents	A weekly summary (with consent) and an optional full board-pattern mock	Optional, once per season
Newspaper teams: education desk, ad sales, foundation	A year-round education product to sell and report on, not only result-day traffic	Runs it

Question 2

What do they use currently?

Students practise from guess papers, guide books and YouTube, which give answers but never tell them why they got something wrong.

Students and parents

Guide books, guess papers and model papers: answers, no diagnosis.
Free Hindi YouTube channels and apps: explanations, no weekly routine or report.
Local tuition, where families can afford it (see Question 3).

Schools

Paper unit tests marked by hand; a mark per student, rarely a class-wide view of which skill is weak.

How many users face this problem?

About 54 lakh students registered for the 2025 UP Board Class 10 and 12 exams. Reaching 1% of them each week is about 54,000 test-takers.

Fact	Figure	Source
UP Board 2025 registrations, Class 10 + Class 12	about 54 lakh (27.4 lakh + 26.98 lakh)	results.amarujala.com, as reported
Students taking private coaching	27.0% nationally; 25.5% rural, 30.7% urban	NSS CMS: Education 2025 (PIB)
Average yearly coaching spend per student	₹1,793 rural, ₹3,988 urban	NSS CMS: Education 2025 (PIB)
Implication	About 3 in 4 students take no private coaching	Derived from the 27.0% figure

Classes 9 and 11, and other Hindi-belt boards, are not counted here, so the real pool is larger.

Question 4

Why will it be better?

Not because of technology alone: anyone can build a quiz. The edge is distribution, habit and trust that only a daily Hindi newspaper has.

1. It reaches students apps cannot

A printed QR box arrives in Hindi-medium homes every day. No app install, no ad spend to acquire users.

2. It explains why, not just what

Each wrong answer points to the earlier-class skill to review. Guess papers and videos only give the right answer.

3. A weekly habit, not a seasonal spike

Same day, same page, every week. Result-day readers become year-round readers.

4. Sponsors get measurable reach

QR scans and completed tests per edition prove reach, which a plain display ad cannot.

Honest limit: today this is a clickable prototype with 5 questions. The question bank, teacher review and QR tracking still have to be built, and the pilot has to show students come back.

Question 5

Will they pay?

Students will not, and should not have to. Sponsors and schools are the realistic payers; parents are a small bonus.

Payer	Why they would pay	Prototype default (assumption)
Sponsors	Education advertisers want exam-year families; a named weekly slot with measured scans is easier to justify than a display ad	30 weeks × ₹1 lakh = ₹30 lakh
Schools	A weekly class gap map saves teachers time and gives schools something to show parents	200 schools × 300 students × ₹100 = ₹60 lakh
Parents	A full board-pattern mock just before exams, priced far below tuition	2% of 50,000 × ₹99 = ₹1 lakh
Total, year one	At these assumptions	about ₹91 lakh

Why students stay free: average rural coaching spend is only ₹1,793 a year, so charging students would shrink the audience that sponsors and schools are paying to reach. Sponsor fees and school prices are guesses until the ad desk and 10 pilot schools confirm them.

Question 6

What is the real problem not solved right now?

Hindi-medium board students practise a lot but get no feedback on why they go wrong; and the newspaper's education audience is seasonal, so it cannot be monetised all year.

For students: practice material is everywhere, but nothing tells a Class 10 student that their quadratic mistakes come from a Class 9 factorisation gap. About 3 in 4 take no private coaching that could tell them.
For schools: teachers mark tests but rarely see which skill the whole class is weak in.
For the newspaper: education traffic spikes on result day and fades, and the school programmes run as separate events. A weekly test turns that into one year-round product that ad sales can sell.

Proof

8-Week Pilot and What Would Prove It Wrong

Pilot (one district edition)

QR box every Wednesday on the education page, linked from the results portal.
8 weekly sponsor slots sold through the existing ad desk.
10 schools get a free class report, then a quote for the paid pack.
Every question reviewed by a subject teacher before print.

Stop or rethink if (proposed thresholds)

Fewer than 60% of students who scan the QR finish the test.
Fewer than 20% of week-1 students return by week 4.
No sponsor renews after the pilot.
Fewer than 3 of the 10 pilot schools agree to pay.

Risks handled in the design: the test works without login, and contact details are collected only with verifiable parent or school consent (DPDP Act 2023). Sponsors never see student data or results. Wrong questions are a brand risk, so teacher review comes before print.