The government has scrapped the provision of private School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examinations.
Every year, 5,000 to 10,000 people appear privately for the SLC exams after filling exam forms through tuition centres registered at District Education Offices.
The Office of the Controller of Examination (OCE), SLC board, recently announced that SLC exam forms that come through tuition centres will not be entertained.
The OCE decision comes after the sixth amendment to the Education Regulation -2002 in January -2011 which banned the private SLC exam.
The amendment has stated that private SLC students must submit their exam forms through open schools established under the National Centre for Educational Development (NCED).
Surya Prasad Gautam, examination controller, today said since private SLC examinees were unaware of the provision, the form submission deadline has been postponed for one week so that examinees can submit forms through open schools.
“Confused with the new provision, students may commit errors in filling up the exam forms leading to cancellation of their forms. We have notified them to come through appropriate channel,” said Gautam.
Education Ministry Joint Spokesperson Dr Lekhnath Paudel said the private SLC exam was scrapped from this year to bring all students into a government system. “Rather than prohibiting private SLC examinees, we have made the exam more systematic by enrolling them in open schools,” said Paudel.
Mitra Nath Gartaula, deputy director, NCED, said currently more than 8,000 students are studying in 85 open schools across the country. He said students aged between 16 to 64 years have enrolled in open schools to take the one-year class equivalent to secondary level education.
He said open schools were established in 2007 with 30 students in five schools, one in each development region.
Tuition centres flay move
Private tuition centres that prepare clients for the SLC exam on Thursday expressed outrage at the government decision scrapping the provision under which candidates could take the exam without attending formal school. “We have no option but to launch protests against the decision,” said Bal Ram Thapa, vice president of Education Institutes Association, at an interaction titled ‘SLC exam and Open School’, organised by the association and the Education Journalists Group. “We have been helping people, who are past schoolgoing age, complete school level,” he informed, alleging that the government decision to bar people from sitting for SLC exam was discriminatory. According to him, around 5,000 to 10,000 private SLC candidates sit for the exam each year. EIA has suggested that the government recognise all tuition centres as independent open schools or establish an open school and appoint tuition centres as its franchises.
(Source: The HImalayan TImes)
