KATHMANDU : A decision on holding grade 12 examinations is being delayed although various alternatives for conducting the stalled exams have been recommended.
The National Examination Board (NEB) had given suggestions last month along with alternatives for conducting the long stalled examination. NEB had suggested to the government that in the condition that holding examinations are not feasible, online exams could be conducted for 40 marks, practical exams given for 20 marks and the total marks obtained by a student in Class 11 exams could be converted to 40 marks for the evaluation.
Another alternative suggested by the NEB was that evaluation and certification could be done through 50 percent internal assessment and the marks secured by a student in Class 11 could be converted into 50 percent.
Although NEB’s suggestion has been forwarded to the Council of Ministers through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology for its approval, no decision has been made regarding this topic so far, creating confusion among students and parents.
If a decision on this matter is not immediately made, then there will be slim possibility of holding the exams before Dashain. Moreover, it will be difficult to conduct the exams in the mountainous districts after Dashain due to the cold.
In such a situation, experts suggest that the second alternative of the NEB has high chances of implementation. Moreover, questions have been raised regarding the authenticity of the online exams said to be held for 40 marks as it is going to be an ‘open book exam’ as well as the possibility of access to the internet in all places.
Speaking to RSS some days ago, Minister for Education Giriraj Mani Pokharel had said that the Ministry was ready to administer the examinations in one way or another as the Class 12 exam is a Board Examination and it has to have international equivalence.
As for online exams, questions have risen on the duration of the exam, assigning the exam centres, how to get the question papers to the students, how to collect and evaluate the answer scripts and when to publish the results.
The government had issued the Student Learning Facilitation Guidelines-2077 on September 4 which stipulates that teaching-learning activities can be conducted by employing other means of information technology in case students do not have access to online media.
Ministry spokesperson Deepak Sharma said nothing can be said of the Class 12 examination until the Council of Minister makes a decision. He believes that the Council of Ministers will decide on any of the given alternatives.
The Class 12 examinations which were scheduled to be held from April 20 were suspended due to the lockdown imposed on March 24 to stem the spread of COVID-19. A total 432 thousand students had filled the examination application form.
NEB, through a notice on September 11, had asked the students who had filled up the examination admission form for Class 12 exam to provide within a week details if they have moved to the districts other than the district they were studying in due to the coronavirus pandemic or any other reason.
