KATHMANDU, March 17: The National Examination Board’s (NEB) Examination Control Office has completed all preparations for this year's Secondary Education Examination (SEE).
Nanda Lal Paudel, controller of Examinations for Grade 10, stated that the board has finalized all arrangements for the SEE, which will begin across the country on March 20. The board has already dispatched question papers, symbol numbers, answer sheets, and other necessary materials to each district.
Paudel said, "A total of 464,785 students took the SEE in 2080 BS. This year, the number has increased by 49,286, reaching 514,071."
For this year's SEE, the board has designated 2,079 exam centers nationwide. Each center with up to 150 students will have an assistant center chief, while one invigilator will monitor every 20 students. Centers with fewer than 75 students will not have an assistant center chief.
This time, the board has set up three exam centers outside schools, including juvenile correction centers and prisons. Paudel stated that students will take exams from two prisons in Kathmandu and Dailekh, as well as a juvenile correction home in Bhaktapur.
Additionally, students from Saphalta HIV Shiksha Sadan in Kirtipur will appear for this year's SEE, including four HIV-infected students.
The SEE will start on March 20 and end on April 1, with exams scheduled from 8 am to 11 am. On the first day, students will take the compulsory English exam, while Vedavidyashram students will appear for compulsory Sanskrit and Madarsa students for compulsory Arabic.
On March 21, students will take the compulsory Nepali exam, along with Elective English for non-Nepali students. The compulsory Mathematics exam is scheduled for March 23, followed by the compulsory Science and Technology exam on March 25. On the same day, Sanskrit students will take exams in subjects like Shuklayajurveda, Samaveda, Atharvaveda, and Ethics. The compulsory Social Studies exam is set for March 26, the first elective subject for March 27, and the second elective subject for March 28.
The board has prepared, like last year, to publish this year's exam results under the letter grading system. It aims to achieve a 70 percent pass rate in the results of the exams conducted until April 1. In the SEE of 2080 BS, only 48 percent of students had passed.