BIRATNAGAR, MAR 19 - More than 6,300 students in the eastern districts are deprived of attending this year’s School Leaving Certificate examinations as they failed to meet the minimum attendance criteria. The examinations start on Thursday.

According to standards set by the government, students who failed to meet the 75 percent attendance in the whole academic session are ineligible to attend the SLC examinations. Schools operated classes for 170 days in average this year.

Dipak Shrestha, section officer at the Regional Education Directorate, Dhankuta said a total of 6,311 students failed to attend the examination this year as they failed to meet the attendance criteria.

According to the Directorate, the number of students barred from attending the examinations is higher in Tarai districts than those from the mountainous districts.

Likewise, Jhapa and Morang districts have the highest number of students who failed to meet the attendance criteria.

The number of students who are ineligible to attend the SLC examinations is 1,143 in Jhapa, 950 in Morang, 716 in Udayapur, 449 in Sunsari, 499 in Saptari, 320 in Siraha, 440 in Panchthar, 371 in Ilam, 336 in Taplejung, 165 in Sankhuwasabha, 263 in Dhankuta, 158 in Bhojpur, 143 in Okhaldhunga, 163 in Khotang, 114 in Terhathum and 75 in Solukhumbu.

Officials at the concerned schools said that most of the ineligible students are wage labourers.

A total of 133,481 students, including 91,463 under regular category and 42,018 under exempted category, are attending the examinations from eastern districts this year.

source: the kathmandu post,19 march 2014