SEE begins from today, 514,071 students participating

KATHMANDU, March 20: This year's Secondary Education Examination (SEE) starts today, Thursday. The Office of the Controller of Examinations of the National Examination Board said that SEE will be conducted from 8 a.m. today at 2,079 nationwide examination centres.

As per the schedule, examinations of compulsory English, compulsory Sanskrit, and compulsory Arabic language subjects will be conducted on the first day today. The exam will be held from 8 am to 11 am.

Authorities now call the annual Grade 10 exam SEE, replacing its previous name, the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) exam. Officials first conducted the SLC in 1990 B.S. with 34 students, and it has since evolved into SEE. This year marks the 91st edition of the nationwide examination.

A total of 514,071 students are taking the SEE this year, including 421,585 in the regular category. Tara Nath Niraula, Deputy Controller of the National Examination Board (NEB) for SEE, stated that the total number of candidates has dropped by around 2,000 compared to last year when 516,000 students appeared for the exam.

The SEE will run until April 1, with 11,216 secondary schools across the country sending students to participate, Deputy Controller Niraula said. The authorities have set up 2,080 exam centers for the examination. The board has deployed 77,817 personnel to ensure an organized and disciplined process, he added.

"We have completed all preparations for the SEE. We have printed and delivered question sheets to the centers. We have also securely stored question papers near the respective exam centres under police protection," Niraula said. "The SEE, which started with just 34 students during the SLC era, now has nearly half a million participants."

He stated that 421,585 regular students are taking the SEE this year, including 209,705 female and 211,857 male students.

Around 16,000 students from the technical stream are also taking the SEE. Although 90,000 students who failed last year's SEE qualified for the grade improvement exam, only 75,532 registered, according to Deputy Controller Niraula. He stated that authorities have been unable to contact 15,000 students who were supposed to take the exam.

"This time, 15,000 students expected to sit for the grade improvement exam have gone unaccounted for. Among those taking the exam, 40,962 are female and 34,570 are male. The higher number of female students in the grade improvement exam indicates that many male students who failed last year may have left in search of work or decided not to retake the exam," he explained.

Dr. Mahashram Sharma, Chairperson of the National Examination Board, stated that only officials from the provincial and district-level examination coordination committees can enter the exam halls for inspections this year.

He said, "In the past, there were more monitors in the exam hall than students, which created fear among children. To ensure a stress-free and organized environment, we have restricted entry to the exam hall for everyone except examination committee members this time." He added that observers are allowed to monitor the exam centers.

Journalists barred from entering exam halls

Deputy Controller Niraula announced that authorities have barred journalists from entering exam halls this year, as students previously felt uncomfortable when reporters took photographs inside.

To ensure discipline and security, officials have deployed between six and fifteen security personnel at each exam center. They have set daily allowances at Rs 800 for center heads, NPR 600 for deputy center heads, Rs 300 for inspectors, and Rs 200 for support staff.

In Kathmandu Metropolitan City, 49,416 students from 1,015 secondary schools are appearing for the SEE across 136 exam centers. Chief of the Metropolitan Education Department, Samanta Mani Acharya, stated that in previous years, an excessive number of supervisors and inspectors in some centers negatively impacted students.

He said, "In the past, teachers, parents, and others entered the exam halls under the guise of monitoring and inspection, causing anxiety among students." He added, "To eliminate fear this time, we have reduced the number of distributed cards by 30 percent.”

Deputy Controller Niraula explained that a legal provision imposes a fine of Rs 100,000 or six months' imprisonment, or both, on officials who violate the exam's integrity. He also stated that students who misbehave during the exam will face a ban from exams for one to three years.