KATHMANDU, June 25: The National Examination Board (NEB) is preparing to publish the results of the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) for Grade 10 at the end of June. Controller of Examinations Dr. Ganesh Bhattarai said the results have been delayed this year due to the teachers' protest.
As per the NEB calendar, SEE results must be published within three months of the exam's conclusion. However, due to a protest led by the Nepal Teachers’ Association during the answer sheet evaluation period, the checking process started one and a half months late, making an early result release unlikely, according to Bhattarai.
This year’s SEE exam concluded on April 1. Currently, the answer sheet evaluation has been completed, and verification and data entry are underway.
“In the past, answer sheet evaluation would begin within a week of SEE’s conclusion, but this time it started one and a half months late due to the teachers' protest,” Dr Bhattarai told Republica, “With around 4 million answer sheets from 517,000 students, evaluation naturally takes time. Now that evaluation is complete, verification and data entry are ongoing.”
SEE results vibe!
Dr. Bhattarai stated that his main focus since taking office has been publishing error-free results. On Wednesday as well, he was found working in the confidential section.
20 percent ‘random re-checking’ caused significant errors
Past NEB research revealed that a random re-checking method, which reviewed only 20 percent of answer sheets post-evaluation, had led to significant errors in SEE result publication.
Although answer sheets are supposed to be re-verified after the initial checking to eliminate errors, the method of basing overall evaluations on only 20 percent of the pages had caused many students to lose marks.
“After noticing that many students were affected by this system, the board revised the re-checking process this year,” said Dr Bhattarai, “In last year’s results, many students who were expected to score an A+ ended up failing.”
This situation subjected students to unnecessary mental stress. “To prevent such stress for students, this year the board instructed checkers to flip through and review every page of every answer sheet,” he added.
The board has already conducted orientation programs for both evaluators and re-checkers. “Until last year, only 20 percent of answer sheets were re-checked after evaluation. That resulted in many mistakes,” he said, “So, to ensure error-free results this year, detailed re-checking has been prioritized. Checkers are instructed to go through each page of the answer sheets.”
According to him, answer sheet evaluation was conducted at 50 centers across the country. This year, a total of 517,000 students appeared for the SEE exam.
Evaluators receive Rs 24 per answer sheet checked, while re-checkers get only Rs 6 per sheet.
NEB Chairperson Dr Mahashram Sharma said that the extended teachers' movement, which hampered evaluation efforts, has affected the results. He emphasized that the board’s primary focus this time is to publish accurate and error-free results.
