As the government prepares to replace four levels of school education with two, the School Leaving Certificate examination will be held at the end of grade 12, instead of 10, starting next year, in the exam’s 82-year history.

The Legislature-Parliament on Saturday endorsed the eight amendment bill to Education Act-1972, allowing restructuring of school education. As per the new legal provisions, the Higher Secondary Education Board and the SLC Examination Board will be replaced by the Central Education Board (CEB), which will conduct examinations both at the regional and central levels.

Baikuntha Aryal, spokesperson for the Department of Education, said the final school leaving examination will be held after grade 12, which may be named Higher School Leaving Certificate Examination. Grade 10 exams will be made regional, most probably provincial, by the CEB and possibly renamed Secondary School Examination.

Unlike at present, there will be no board exam for grade 11. Respective schools will have the authority to conduct exams for the year. After early secondary schooling, students can take up management, science, humanities, technical education or any other stream like now. “As all the secondary schools do not run grades 11 and 12, students can shift schools after grade 10,” said Aryal. Out of the 11,000 secondary schools, only around one third—3,600—offer schooling up to grade 12. He, however, claimed that students would be denied exit after the tenth grade once all the secondary schools conduct classes to grade 12.

In the new two-level schooling, grades 1-8 will be primary and grades 9-12 secondary. The government is preparing to start technical and vocational courses from grade 9.