In the past few months, Ramu Belbase was worried about his son’s performance in Secondary Education Examination but with the results out last week, he is on the hunt to find the best Higher Secondary School to enroll his son, Abhilesh, into. Abhilesh graduated his grade 10 from New Horizon in Butwal and now wants to pursue science in the Capital. Under the suggestion of his father Ramu, he has applied to four HSS, with St. Xavier’s College in Maitighar being the first choice.

Ramu believes that joining grade 11 after completing the SEE is not just an academic promotion but also an important shift where one need to be very careful about choosing the right HSS and right subjects based on the student’s career goal. Abhilekh wants to pursue engineering after completing grade 12, therefore he wants to enroll in an HSS that has good faculties for the science stream. Though grade 12 is still considered school education and the students have choices to continue their study in schools they graduated SEE from, there is a tendency among parents and the children to shift academic institutions after completion of grade 10.

“We have to go by our children’s choices yet the decisions to choose an HSS and courses should be taken jointly,” said Ramu, adding that he is not yet decided where to enroll his son. Thousands of parents whose children got through the SEE are going through the similar dilemma. Some 300,000 among 451,532 students who took the SEE examinations have graduated, while others either have to sit for a retest to upgrade their grades or opt for technical courses. Based on the student’s performances the government has prescribed 12 categories of courses the students can choose from. Those who want to pursue the Science stream must have 2 GPA with C score in five compulsory subjects. For the non-science group, one has to get at least 1.6 GPA with at least D marks in one of the subject related to the course they want to pursue. The government has set two criteria of eligibility for higher studies. The students who have scored 1.6 Grade Point Average (GPA) and have at least D in English are eligible to enroll into grade 11, while those who don’t meet the criteria can opt for technical education.

Experts say that no subject is good or bad. Every subject has its own scope given that students perform well. They suggest that parents not to impose their idea over their choice of subjects and allow their wards to choose the course they like based on their career objectives. They suggest that the faculty and past performance of the higher secondary schools should be given the first priority while selecting any HSS schools.

Tips
> Academic and social background of the founders and the teaching faculty.
> The condition of the buildings and infrastructure
> The vision, mission and objectives of the HSS and whether it meets your criteria or not.
> What kinds of learning/teaching methodologies are applied, infrastructure, lab status, canteen, hostel facilities and extra-curricular activities.
> Tracking past results and level of excellence performed by the alumni matters.
> Environment for creative learning.
> Students’ interest, affordability and accessibility.
> The performance of students in the medical entrance of Institute of Medicine, Ministry of Education and Institute of Engineering and other reputed scholarships

source: the kathmandu post, 1 July 2018