Lucknow: More than 370,000 students in Uttar Pradesh have applied for exams for clerics conducted by the Madrasa Education Board, which is a steep rise from the minuscule number of applications it received last year, officials said.

As many as 376,060 students have filled the forms online for the yearly exams for munshi, maulvi, aalim, faazil and qamil. Officials said this was an significant rise, and added it not only showed their bent towards education but also their willingness in using internet, reported twocircles.net.

Officials said the exams were postponed thrice in the recent past because the number of applications received was negligent.

The chairman of the board said exams would be conducted across the state between April 11 and 23.

He also said an examination committee, a syllabus committee and a monitoring committee have been constituted for the exams.