More than 538,000 students are taking the first Secondary Education Examination, which replaced the School Leaving Certificate, beginning on Thursday.

Following the eighth amendment to the Education Act-1972 on June 29 last year, which restructured the school education, the SLC examination held at the

end of grade 10 was renamed as SEE. The SLC will be conducted for grade 12 students in place of the earlier Higher Secondary School examination.

Like in the past two years, girls continue to outnumber boys with 278,450 female students taking the exam against 259,732 male students. Among the 538,182 total examinees, 468,400 are in the regular category while the remaining ones are from the exempted group. Though the Central Examination Board has been formed to conduct the SEE and the SLC, the Office of the Controller of Examinations (OCE) will hold the exams this year in the lack of preparations on part of the board.

“All the preparations are over. We are putting efforts together to maintain optimum decency during exam,” said Examination Controller Ambika Prasad Regmi. Though officials seem confident about hassle-free exams in the rest of the country, they are worried about Province 2, where protests continue following a fatal clash between police and cadres of the Madhes-centric parties on March 6. A meeting of the Security Committee on Monday discussed the nationwide examination. According to Education Secretary Shanta Bahadur Shrestha, Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force will be mobilised across the country. There will also be the presence of Nepal Army for security back-up as in the past. “However, we will try to keep security forces at the school gates rather than allowing them inside exam halls,” he said. The tests to be held from 8am to 11am will conclude on March 26. The OCE will be publishing the results within 100 days of completion of the exams.

The OCE has adopted letter grading system to evaluate students’ performance.