National
SEE results show drop in learning outcomes
The Office of the Controller of Examinations (OCE) on Saturday published its last results of the Secondary Education Examination on Saturday, showing a falling performance of students. Grade 10 exams will be conducted at the provincial level starting next academic year.Binod Ghimire
The Office of the Controller of Examinations (OCE) on Saturday published its last results of the Secondary Education Examination on Saturday, showing a falling performance of students. Grade 10 exams will be conducted at the provincial level starting next academic year.
Despite tall claims of the government towards improvement in the quality of education, the share of students getting too low grades to get admission into the higher level has increased compared to last year.
Among the 451,532 examinees from both regular and technical steams, 58,688—12.99 percent—got Grade Point Average lower than 1.25. The share of poorly performing students in the lowest grade range was 2.65 percent last year. Although no candidate fails as claimed by the government, schools do not admit those securing less than 1.25 GPA to grade 11.
The OCE, for the last three years, has been publishing the results in letter grades. Subject-wise results are categorised into nine groups from A to E while the overall results are published on a GPA range of 0 to 4.
Central Examination Board (CEB) Chairman Chandra Mani Poudel agreed that the SEE results showed no improvement in the quality of education. He, however, claimed that the results would improve once students take new tests for better grade. The students getting C, D , D or E grades in any of the subjects can take re-examinations in pursuit of better grades. This could change their GPA ultimately. Fresh tests will be held from August 8.
“Around 45 percent students getting GPA below 2 doesn’t paint a good picture,” Poudel told the news conference. GPA 2 is the average performance of students. The results show that 195,315 examinees—around 44 percent—have got GPA below 2. The corresponding figure was around 41 percent last year.
On the brighter side, the number of students securing GPA above 3.60 has increased compared to last year. While the number was 12,284—2.75 percent—the number of students getting the highest grade increased to 14,234—3.15 percent—this year.
The OCE was said to publish the results at 4pm on Friday but the announcement was delayed by four hours. The authority blamed software problems for the delay. As a result, the OCE failed to provide province-wise results.
“The CEB will conduct the SEE exams and publish the results at the provincial level starting next year,” Examination Controller Ambika Prasad Regmi told journalists.
Adhering to the constitutional provision, grade 8 exams will now be held at the local level while the grade 10 test will be managed at the provincial level. Only grade 12 exams called School Leaving Certification Examination will be conducted by the Board at the Centre.