A teacher from Saraswati Secondary School in Lamki Kauwapur, Kailali, was arrested on the first day of the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) with the English question paper in his possession. Deepak Dhamala was caught by the police near the Rastriya Secondary School, Motinagar examination centre.

“He was arrested while attempting to solve the English question paper,” said Inspector Lokendra Bahadur Singh of the Lamki Police Station. “We found a message on his mobile Messenger app, where Mahendra Dhamala from Achham had sent him the question paper. The paper was sent at around 9:30 am on Thursday,” Singh added.

The police informed the examination board about the incident.

Despite this, the SEE exams in Kailali and other parts of the Sudurpaschim proceeded peacefully on the first day, according to Durga Datta Bishta, the director general of the Education Development Directorate in the Sudurpaschim Province.

This year, 58,943 students from this province are registered for the SEE exams, including 30,877 female students and 28,066 male students. The majority of students, 43,923, are taking the general stream exams, with 2,092 in technical streams and 12,928 in grade improvement category.

In Kailali, the highest number of 19,488 students are sitting for the exams, followed by 11,301 in Kanchanpur; 5,362 in Baitadi; 5,029 in Achham; 4,062 in Doti; 4,644 in Bajhang; 3,037 in Darchula; 3,018 in Bajura; and 2,802 in Dadeldhura.

A total of 514,017 students have appeared in the SEE exams nationwide which commenced on Thursday, according to the National Examination Board.

The board said 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 conducted at 2080 centres, including in prisons in Kathmandu and Dailekh and juvenile correction homes in Bhaktapur. One centre has also been set up at a Nepali school in Japan.