KATHMANDU, May 23: The National Examination Board (NEB) is expected to delay the release of this year’s Secondary Education Examination (SEE) results, missing its three-month publication deadline set in the academic calendar. The delay stems from a protest led by the Nepal Teachers' Federation, which caused a one-and-a-half-month setback in the start of answer sheet evaluations by community school teachers.
Last year, the SEE took place from March 20 to April 1. Based on the schedule, this year's results were due by July 3. But the late start in answer sheet evaluation has disrupted the timeline. A NEB official confirmed that the delay could push back the publication. The teachers' protest, which started in March in Kathmandu, ended on April 30 after reaching an agreement with the government.
Teachers started evaluating answer sheets only after they returned from Kathmandu. SEE students have raised concerns that delayed result publication could cause them to lose opportunities to study abroad. Dr Ganesh Bhattarai, controller of the Grade 10 examinations, said the faster teachers complete the evaluation, the sooner the board will publish the results.
SEE results vibe!
"Normally, teachers started evaluating answer sheets about a week after the exams ended, but this time the teachers' protest delayed the process by one and a half months," Controller Bhattarai said.
“About 517,000 students appeared for the exam, and their answer sheets total around 4 million. Evaluating and scrutinizing such a large volume naturally takes time. So far, only five centers have completed the evaluation. Even if the board begins working with all the evaluated answer sheets the next day, it will still take about 35 days to publish the results."
Random Scrutiny Causes Errors in Results
The NEB's investigation revealed that the previous random scrutiny method caused many errors in the SEE results. The board found that examiners evaluated only 20 percent of the answer sheets and assumed the rest were similar, which led to significant discrepancies in students' marks. As a result, the board revised the scrutiny method this year, said Controller Bhattarai.
Last year, many students who expected to earn 'A Plus' grades failed, causing unnecessary mental stress. To prevent this, the NEB instructed examiners to review every page of all answer sheets this year. "We also conducted orientation sessions to train examiners on proper evaluation and scrutiny," said Controller Bhattarai. Until last year, the NEB reviewed only 20 percent of the answer sheets during scrutiny after evaluation, which caused many errors."
He said examiners have evaluated answer sheets at 50 centers across the country. A total of 517,000 students appeared for the SEE exam. The NEB pays examiners Rs 24 per answer sheet for evaluation and scrutinizers Rs 6 per answer sheet for scrutiny. Controller Bhattarai stated that the board will publish the results sooner if examiners complete the evaluation faster.
