In the 80-year history of School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examinations, this year will see the girls outnumber the boys in the national board test indicating that the access to education has hugely increased in the recent days. And with more girls getting enrolled into school than boys now, the number of female SLC examinees is set to increase at least for next 10 years as their enrolment in all levels in the school is more than their male colleagues.

According to Exam Controller’s Office (OCE), out of 426,214 regular students taking the exams this year 50.14 percent or 213,710 are girls. A total of 574,685 examinees, including 145,183 under the exempted category, are sitting for the test which begins on Thursday. The number of examinees is 4.8 percent more than last year.

Data with the Education Department suggests more girls have enrolled than boys in all levels of school. According to the department, the number of girls currently in grade nine, who will be sitting for the SLC next year, stands at 256,636--8,988 more than the boys. Girls account for 50.6 percent of the total enrolment in lower secondary level and 50.7 in primary level. And at 73.3 percent, the girls have better survival rate up to grade 8 against 72.1 percent for the boys.

Experts say Nepal has made an impressive progress in gender parity at school. The Gender Parity Index at primary level has reached 1.03 and 1.02 both at the lower-secondary at secondary levels.

Bishnu Karki, an education expert, attributes the development to government initiatives such as scholarships to 50 pc of all the girls, increase in the number of female teachers, setting up separate toilets for girls, among others. “The challenge lies in the success rate as the girls occupy the largest volume among the failed students,” he said,  referring to the numbers of students under exempted category where girls accounts for 60 pc of the total 145,183 examinees. Those who fail in more than two subjects in the previous exam sit under exempted category. Meanwhile, the OCE insists that it has made various efforts to ensure a fair examination and curb errors in the result publication. Examination Controller Bishnu Bahadur Dware said that numbers of security personnel have been increased at exam centres, while students are required to write their symbol numbers even on the question papers to prevent cheating. The OCE has also directed all copy examiners to write their names as well as sign in the answer sheets after marking the copies. The decision was made after the office found  that more than 63 percent of the mistakes in SLC results were due the examiners. A study carried out last year based on the findings of re-totalling results showed that examiners committed multiple mistakes, including incorrect stating of obtained marks, errors in final totalling, leaving answer sheets unattended and lack of clarity in marking. The new system, the OCE claims, will make the copy examiners more responsible as it will be easy to take action against any erring examiner.

Acid victims allowed to take SLC exams
The Office of the Controller of Examinations has decided to allow the victims of acid attack to take SLC exams from hospital bed with the help of exam scribes. The OCE decision followed a Cabinet directive to allow the victims, who are undergoing treatment, to take the test from the hospitals. The girls on Wednesday wrote to the PM demanding immediate action against the perpetrator and for allowing them to attend the SLC examination. The girls were attacked with acid by an unidentified person at a tuition centre in Basantapur on February 22.

source: Binod Ghimire, the kathmandu post,16 MArch 2015