Hundreds of thousands of students sat for grade 12 examinations from Tuesday amid safety precautions in the face of Covid-19 pandemic.

Students across the country took the English test on the first day that began at 8 in the morning. The three-hours examination has been curtailed to an hour and half as the weightage for the test was reduced by 60 percent. The examinees are taking the written examination for 40 percent of the total weightage, additional 40 percent evaluation would be done based on their performance in grade 11 and the remaining 20 percent based on an internal evaluation by the respective schools.

Durga Aryal, member-secretary of the National Examination Board, said the examination started more smoothly than they had anticipated.

“We were a little worried mainly over the safety of the students,’’ he told the Post. “The way the examination concluded has made us happy.”

Minister for Education Giriraj Mani Pokharel, said the effective management resulted in the smooth conduct of the examination.

“There was a dilemma and psychological tension over the grade 12 students,” he told the journalists. “I am glad that the test has opened a door for higher studies to thousands of students.”

The grade 12 examinations originally scheduled for May were postponed as the country went into a lockdown in March as a measure to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Officials at the examination board and school operators claimed that they had adopted proper safety measures to ensure the students don’t have the threat of virus transmission.

Lok Bahadur Bhandari, general secretary of Higher Institutions and Secondary Schools’ Association Nepal, said the seat planning was done with a minimum of two-metre distance between two examinees and there was a proper arrangement of handwashing facilities and sanitisers.

It was also ensured that all the examinees were properly masked.

The examination board has asked all the schools to submit the marks under the internal evaluations by December 7 with a plan to publish the results within 45 days.

“We are working with a plan to come out with the results within a month,” said Aryal. “The students will not have to wait for more than 45 days to get their results.”

Under the 20 percent evaluations, the schools will mark their students based on their attendance, attitude in classrooms and group works.

Owing to the safety concerns, the examinees, for the first time, were allowed to take the examination from their own schools.

Among 433,131 examinees over 14,000 took the test from exam centres most conveniently located in their hometowns;

There are 4,105 examination centres across the country this time; the number was 1,900 last year. The numbers of centres were increased to reduce the crowd.

Around two thirds of the examination centre have a maximum of 100 examinees, according to the examination board.

The question sheets were sent through email to most examination centres. Printed question sheets were made available to only those centres without internet service. 

The examinees are taking the written examination for 40 percent of the total weightage, additional 40 percent evaluation would be done based on their performance in grade 11 and the remaining 20 percent based on an internal evaluation by the respective schools.

In a video message on the eve of the grade 12 test on Monday evening, Minister for Education Giriraj Mani Pokharel said the in-person tests were held to ensure no questions are raised over the qualification of students inside the country and outside which would have been the case if they were promoted without taking their tests.

“We decided to conduct the in-person test at the time of crisis to ensure no question is raised over the qualifications of the graduates inside the country or outside,” said Pokharel.

Earlier the secondary education examinations, or SEE, of grade ten were not held and students were promoted to grade 11 based on internal evaluations of individual schools.