KATHMANDU, June 24:The government is all set to enforce letter grading system to evaluate the performance of grade 9, 11 and 12 students from the current academic year, after applying it in grade 10 from this year.
The recently endorsed eighth amendment of the Education Act 1972 has provisioned two level of school education: beginners to grade eight as basic or elementary level and grades 9 to 12 as secondary level.
The act also calls for conducting SLC exams at grade 12 instead of grade 10 under the existing system.
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“The letter grading system will be implemented at grade nine from the running academic year,” said Tuk Raj Adhikari, deputy director at the Curriculum Development Center (CDC). “The letter grading system being enforced in grade nine will be akin to the grading system practiced in the SLC,” he added.
According to the CDC, a revised curriculum has been implemented in grade nine from the current academic year that started on April 14. The CDC is working to revise the curriculum of grade 10 and will begin the process to reform the curriculum of other grades soon, said the CDC officials.
“The letter grading system will be used gradually at grades 11 and 12, and at beginners to grade eight, respectively,” said Adhikari.
Sources at the Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) informed that they were preparing to execute letter grading system at grades 11 and 12 from the coming examinations. “We have already formed a task force and completed all the preparation on the matter,” said Narayan Koirala, member-secretary at the HSEB. “Since the letter grading system has been already enforced at grade 10, we cannot delay its implementation in case of grades 11 and 12.”
Prof Biddhya Nath Koirala, an education expert, said that the letter grading system needs to be enforced in the entire education programs as soon as possible. The government had been trying to enforce the letter grading system at the SLC level from 2004. However, it came into practice only in 2016.
“As far as I know, the government is working to implement the letter grading system up to plus two level,” he said.
Dr Hari Prasad Lamsal, spokesperson at the Ministry of Education, said that they were on the process of formulating policies to bring changes to the education system.
