The Office of the Controller of Examinations (OCE), which has been under pressure to avoid errors in SLC exam question papers since the last few years, has introduced audio notice boards to amend such errors in the course of the examinations.

A total of 547,165 students are expected to appear in the SLC exams this year, which begin on Thursday.

OCE has set up a team of experts at its central office to check the question papers for errors as soon as the exams starts at all 1,786 exam centers across the country.

The team will unveil the question papers at 8 a.m. and keep updating the superintendants at the exam centers via audio notice boards from within half an hour of the exams commencing.

Exam Controller Khaga Raj Baral assured that students appearing in the exams this year would be relieved of question paper errors and will not have to feel exasperated while sitting in the examination halls.

The audio notice board is a special service that Nepal Telecom is providing to OCE to establish close communications between the OCE experts team at the central office and superintendents at all the exam centers, said Baral.

“Messages sent by the superintendents get recorded in our set and vice versa when one dials 1618016612146," he explained.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has decided to field monitoring teams led by joint secretaries in all 14 zones to regulate the examinations. According to MoE spokesperson Mahashram Sharma, the monitoring teams will be authorized to take final decisions about any problems seen at the exam centers.

“In order to hold the exams efficiently and in a peaceful environment, the teams will be responsible for finding immediate solutions to such problems in all the zones,” he said.

MoE Joint-Secretary Sharma has been deployed to monitor Mechi Zone during the exams. Similarly, Director General of the Department of Education (DoE) Lav Dev Awasthi will take charge in Bagmati Zone and DoE Director Tek Narayan Pandey in Gandaki Zone.

On the basis of provisions in the SLC regulations directive issued last year, as many as 344 students are expected to be disqualified for the SLC exams this year following their dual registration at two separate schools. Exam Controller Baral said that these students have been given till Wednesday to make corrections.

The 1,786 exam centers across the country will be supervised by an equal number of superintendents and 2,655 assistant superintendents. Similarly, 21,890 invigilators, 7,297 peons and 19,860 security personnel will be deployed to conduct the exams smoothly.

Students, teachers, guardians or anybody found violating the exam rules can face up to six months in jail or a Rs 100,000 fine or both as per the gravity of their offense. Likewise, students involved in flouting discipline during the examinations could be disqualified for a year.

Minister urges guardians to encourage students

Minister for Education Dina Nath Sharma has urged guardians to encourage the students but not put unnecessary pressure on them to achieve the best results in the exams.

Speaking at a program organized to inform the public about the government´s preparations for this year´s SLC exams, Sharma added that he was hopeful of better results this year as the government was much criticized for just 47.16 percent passes last year.

Defending last year´s poor SLC results, he said that only good students were able to make it through the iron-gate as the exams were conducted strictly.

The government has within a year addressed several complex issues concerning the SLC system, he claimed.

“A ban on guide and guess papers has conveyed a message to students that those who are able to present creative answers perform well in the exams,” he said.

source: republica,13 March 2013