The Secondary Education Examinations (SEE) began nationwide on Thursday, with 514,017 students sitting for the tests—an increase of 49,286 from last year.

According to the National Examinations Board, students from 11,216 public and private schools are appearing for the exams. Among them, 257,730 are female, 256,311 are male, and 30 fall under the other category.

The exams are being conducted at 2,080 centres, including in prisons in Kathmandu and Dailekh and a juvenile correction home in Bhaktapur. One centre has also been set up at a Nepali school in Japan.

Board chair Mahashram Sharma said question papers, answer sheets, and other exam materials have been delivered to centres and nearby security offices. A total of 77,817 personnel have been mobilised to ensure a fair and peaceful examination process across all 77 districts. Examination management committees in all seven provinces have coordinated the preparations.

Nandalal Paudel, the Grade 10 examination controller, said compulsory subject question papers vary by province, while optional subjects follow a single national paper. Exams begin daily at 8 am and will conclude on April 1, with results set for publication on June 21 as per the board’s annual calendar.

Under the letter grading system, each SEE student must score at least 35 percent mark in the theoretical exams to qualify for higher studies. Students failing to secure the needed marks in theoretical exams will not be eligible to enrol in class 11 and will receive their results in the non-graded category.

Last year, of 464,785 students who took the 10th-grade final examination, 222,472 (47.86) percent secured different grades and qualified for further studies. The remaining 242,313 students (52.14 percent) failed to secure any grades, being categorised as non-graded.