By Manjima Dhakal

Kathmandu, June 12: Minister for the Education, Science and Technology Giriraj Mani Pokharel Thursday said the National Examination Board (NEB) would distribute grade sheets of Secondary Education Examination on the basis of internal assessment within a month. A meeting of the Council of Ministers Wednesday decided to cancel SEE of the year 2076 BS considering the increasing threat of COVID-19. However, the decision of giving validity to SEE from internal assessment applies only for this year.
The NEB will make a working procedure soon to evaluate students’ grading by schools themselves, Minister Pokharel said. As per the working procedure, schools will send evaluation to the District Education Coordination Unit (DECU), and the unit will send the evaluation to NEB for grade sheet, Pokharel said.
A new Education Act is in the Ministry of Law and Justice for approval after getting endorsed from Council of Ministers. The act will give a permanent solution to SEE examinations in the federal system, Minister Pokharel said.
The authority was in preparation to conduct SEE from regional level by formulating required laws.
The NEB will start a process to distribute grade sheets after the decision of the government is published in the gazette, Minister Pokharel said.
Likewise, the government will decide about Grade 11 examinations soon, Minister Pokharel said.
The Ministry itself can decide about the Grade 11 examinations which could not be conducted as SEE examinations, he added.
About Grade 12, Minister Pokharel said the examinations would be held 21 days after the lockdown came to an end and the situation returned to normal. Grade 12 examinations are mandatory for validity of certificate in the global market.
Meanwhile, stakeholders of education have welcomed the government decision to cancel SEE examinations saying that the decision would reduce psychological trauma in students.
They said there was no relevancy of SEE as the government has extended school-level education up to Grade 12. Therefore, there is no need to conduct examinations in grade 10 (SEE) as national examinations, they stated.
Educationist Dr Balchandra Luitel said due to the fear of examinations student-learning process was halted which will be minimised if the tradition of SEE would come to an end. There will be validity of SEE if the teachers are made responsible for evaluation.
Dr Biddhyanath Koirala, educationist, said though the government decision to cancel SEE was welcome, it was not good that the government cancelled the examination only for this year.
Koirala has suggested conducting open examinations by asking critical questions rather than subjective questions to make the students creative.
DK Dhungana, co-chairperson of the Private and Boarding School Association Nepal (PABSON), said the decision of the government came as per their demand which was welcome. Dhungana has further suggested conducting SEE at Statel level rather than conducting it at the national level.