In a tussle with the federal government, the Madhesh Province has announced that it will not participate in any process of the Secondary Education Examination (SEE), which starts Thursday.

Last week, the Madhesh provincial government demanded that the superintendents of SEE centres be selected through a lottery system. It wanted the respective district examination coordination committees to pick the chiefs of examination centres by drawing lots and had communicated the same.

However, the coordination committees, following directives from the National Examination Board, picked the principals of the respective schools where the examination centre has been set as superintendents. As a result, the Madhesh Province decided to opt out of the entire examination process.

Organising a press conference in Janakpurdham on Tuesday, Madhesh chief minister Satish Kumar Singh said there is no point in engaging in the process when the local voices go unheard.

“I want to make it clear that the provincial government and its subordinate bodies will not engage in any examination-related activities,” he said. “They were forced to make this decision after the coordination committees openly ignored the provincial government’s concerns.”

Singh claimed that selecting superintendents through lottery was necessary as allowing the respective principals to lead the examination centres cannot ensure fair tests.

Led by the chief district officers, the coordination committee includes district police chiefs, chiefs of the district education development and coordination units as its members, and teachers representatives as its members. All these offices are subordinate bodies of the federal government.

Also speaking in the press conference, Rani Sharma Tiwari, provincial minister for education and culture, claimed that by imposing its decision, the federal government wants to weaken the province’s education system.

The Madhesh government’s decision comes just two days before the SEE starts across the country. Talking to the Post, Mahashram Sharma, chair of the examination board, said they don’t have any intention to bypass the provincial government’s decision. “This year, there wasn’t enough time to go as the Madhesh government wanted. We will try to accommodate their concern next time,” he said.

While the Sharma-led board largely manages the tests, the provincial governments coordinate logistics. Asked if the provincial government’s decision to opt out will impact the test, Sharma said, “There might be some inconvenience. However, the tests will be held as planned. All the preparations have already been made,” he said.

As per the board's record, 88,858 examinees of 1,231 schools from eight districts of the province are sitting for the tests. A total 312 exam centres have been fixed which will be handled by the equal numbers of superintendents and their assistants. Similarly, over 12,ooo invigilators and other support staff too will be mobilised to conduct the tests.

This year’s SEE, which starts Thursday, will continue until April 1. The students have three hours (from 8am to 11am) to write their papers. As many as 514,071 examinees from 11,216 schools including from Madhesh are taking their tests from the seven provinces. While 257,730 of them are girls, 256311 are boys. Similarly, 30 are from other categories. The number is 49,286 more than last year.

The board has set up 2,079 examination centres across the country for the tests.

Interacting with the coordination committees on Monday, Bidya Bhattarai, minister for education, science and technology, had instructed them to ensure there were no lapses in the examination process. She had asked them to take strict action against attempts to harm the integrity of the tests.