Parliament on Saturday endorsed the eighth amendment to the Education Act-1972, paving the way for major restructuring of school education that would see phasing out of School Leaving Certificate (SLC) system and retirement of over 23,000 temporary teachers through golden handshake. 

Despite reservations from some lawmakers, including those from the ruling parties, the bill, first tabled over six years ago, was endorsed with a two-third majority.

With the eighth amendment to the Education Act endorsed, the Higher Secondary Education Board and the Office of the Controller of the Examination, which conducts SLC examination, will be phased out and a central examination board (CEB) would replaced them to oversee school education. 

The final board examination of school education will be conducted in Grade XII instead of Grade X. 

Grade X board examination will be held at regional level, while a central assessment will be held for Grade VIII students. 

The Act will come into effect after it is authenticated by the President. 

“The move will also end the decades-long problem related to temporary teachers,” said Education Minister Giriraj Mani Pokharel while tabling the bill for endorsement in Parliament. 

Once the Act takes effect, school education will be divided into two levels-basic (Grades I to VIII) and secondary (Grades IX to XII).

In the current system, there are four levels—primary (Grades I to V), lower secondary (Grades VI and VII), secondary (Grades IX and X) and higher secondary (Grades XI and XII) 11 to 12) levels. 

Starting from the new academic session next year, schools need to be registered either as private “guthi” or public “guthi”. 

The earlier draft bill had a provision of registering private schools as cooperative. 

However, the provision was scrapped after strong pressure from private schools operators. 

Around 50 lawmakers from different parties have been directly involved in the private sector education, who were against that provision.

• Higher Secondary Education Board and Office of the Controller of Examination to be replaced with central examination board 
• School education to be divided into two levels basic (Grades I to VII) and secondary (Grades IX to XI) 
• 23,000 temporary teachers to get golden handshake 
• Schools to be registered either as private guthi or public guthi
• Teachers who were forced to quit job during the decade-long Maoist insurgency to be reinstated