A total of 528,257 students will be writing their Compulsory English paper on the first day of this year’s School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examinations that will kick off across the country on Tuesday.

A total of 1,748 centres have been set up across the country for the nine-day exams that will begin at 8 and end at 11 every morning.

Among the examinees are 446,166 -229,751 regular boys and 216,233 regular girls, while 82,091-36,341 boys and 45,942 girls are of the exempted category.

Altogether, 34,014 students are appearing for the exams from Kathmandu this year, the highest number in a district, while 105, the least number of students, will be appearing from Manang.

According to the Office of the Controller of the Examinations (OCE), 56,000 personnel, including superintendents, assistant superintendents, invigilators and security personal will be deployed for the examinations.

While 83 percent of the examinees are from public schools, the rest are from private schools. The estimated cost of the examinations will be around Rs 280 million.

Controller of Examinations Dilli Ram Rimal said at least 10 security personnel will be deployed in every exam centre, while there will be one invigilator for every 25 students. He said the SLC Examination Board has decided to adopt tough measures to conduct disciplined and fair exams.

This time around, the government has decided to either reward or penalise exam superintendents for their performance.

Also for the first time, the Board has decided to confiscate all previous certificates of anyone who sits for the exams for someone else, while the actual examinee will be barred from appearing in the exams next year.

A meeting of the Board has also decided to file public offence cases against parents, guardians who encourage their wards to adopt unfair means, while teachers, officials and security personnel involved in such practices will also be booked. Anyone found breaching the norms of the exams will be liable to action, the Board said.

Exam for the compulsory Nepali paper will be held on March 21, mathematics on March 22, science on March 23, social studies on March 25, environment, health and population on March 26, optional subject first paper on March 27 and optional subject paper on March 28.

FACTFILE
> 1,748 centres across country
> Exams begin at 8 am and end at 11 am
> 34,014 students appearing for exams from Kathmandu
> 105 from Manang
> 56,000 personnel to be deployed in centres
> SLC Board to adopt tough measures
> Public offence cases against parents, guardians who encourage wards to cheat

source: The Kathmandu Post,20 March 2012