SLC exams from March 25, students in Udaypur preparing sans books

This year's School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination will start from March 25, according to the Office of the Controller of Examinations (OCE).

The annual school passing out examination, also called the ‘iron gate’ because of high percentage of students failing in it, will be conducted from March 25 till April 2.

From last year onwards the government has been holding SLC in a new format, including the syllabus only of class ten as against syllabi of both class 9 and 10 in previous years.

Meanwhile, a report from Udaypur district in eastern Nepal says that students sitting for this year’s SLC examination have still not got their text-books, although there remains only two months for the most important examination in their academic life.

Due to the shortage of text-books in the market the students of district headquarter Gaighat and rural areas are compelled to prepare for their examination by studying ‘guides’ to their text-books.

‘Guides’ are compilation of important extracts from the text-books in question and answer format, meant to be used by students more as a refresher for the subjects they are giving examination of.

Dhurva Bhatta, Principal of Patanabhanjyang High School in Sirishe VDC said that the teachers are compelled to use the help of ‘guides’ that are readily available in the market to prepare their students for the examination since text-books are no longer available.

“We didn’t get text-books even nine-months after the start of the academic year,” he told Kantipur Daily, “guide has become our only alternative to text books.”

Sanjiv Magar of Sirungchabise-8, Betani said that he is finding it difficult to prepare for his SLC examination because he doesn’t have books to refer to.

“But I have to sit for the examination anyway,” he said, “so I am studying guides.” nepalnews.com Jan 08 09