KATHMANDU, July 5: After halting the national board exams of Grade 11 due to the spread of Covid-19 pandemic for three months now, the government has decided not to conduct the exams this year. Instead, the certificates will be issued on the basis of internal evaluations carried out by the respective colleges.
“A meeting of the Curriculum Development Center (CDC) under the Ministry of Education on June 3 decided that students’ evaluation will be done on the basis of the internal evaluations made by their colleges”, said Ganesh Bhattarai, spokesperson for the CDC.
The decision was taken after the authorities reaalized that the examinations cannot be held this year due to the threat of the spread of the COVID-19 virus. “The decision was taken as the virus is still spreading and conducting any board examinations anytime soon can cost us dearly,” he said.
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In previous years, the academic sessions for Grade 12 would’ve already started by Mid-June. However, this year the disorder created by the pandemic has been delaying the examinations at all levels as well as resuming academic sessions.
As mentioned by Bhattarai, the decision has been forwarded to the National Examination Board for implementation. “It is up to the board to further execute the decision with a proper working procedure.”
However, Durga Aryal, member secretary at the board mentioned that the decision passed by the CDC is yet to be implemented. “We’re still preparing to come up with a plan of action for its implementation,” said Aryal.
The grade 11 exams were scheduled to start on May 3 but were postponed after the government imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 24 to contain the spread of the disease.
A total of 962,000 students were appearing for the Grade 11 and Grade 12 examinations this year. Previously, the government had also decided to scrap the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) for the rapid spread of the Coronavirus. So far the nation has reported a total of 15,784 cases with 34 deaths as of Sunday.
