The National Examination Board (NEB) announced that this year’s grade 12 examinations will commence on Sunday, with a total of 511,525 students set to participate across Nepal.

Of the total examinees, 395,908 are appearing under the regular category while 115,617 are partial examinees. The exams, which were initially scheduled to begin on April 16 but postponed by 10 days due to a teachers’ strike, will now run until May 16.

The NEB has designated 1,591 examination centres across 77 districts.

Kathmandu will host the highest number with 162 centres, while districts like Manang and Mustang will have only one each. The lowest number of examinees—45—are from Manang, whereas Kathmandu tops the list with 68,133 candidates.

This year, Everest School in Japan will facilitate the exams for 38 Nepali students residing there, demonstrating the board’s global coordination effort.

NEB Examination Controller Krishna Prasad Sharma issued a statement urging stakeholders to conduct the exams in a “fair, dignified, disciplined, well-managed, and student-friendly” manner. In line with the reforms introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic, question papers will continue to be delivered electronically to examination centres.

“Each centre will receive the question sets 30 minutes before the exam via a secure user ID.” Sharma said. “Download and printing of the papers will be conducted under strict supervision—by the centre chief, assistant chief, and local police personnel.”

To monitor the integrity of the examinations, chief district officers will lead local examination coordination committees. Mobile phones are prohibited inside the centres for all except the centre chiefs.

Provincially, Bagmati Province will see the highest number of participants with 135,240 students, while Karnali will see the lowest, with 38,888. Other provinces include Koshi (82,871), Madhesh (69,808), Gandaki (43,349), Lumbini (90,678), and Sudurpaschim (50,654).

Preparations including security coordination, confidential material management, and training workshops for centre heads have been completed, according to the board.

The board also confirmed that the checking of answer sheets for the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) has resumed after a three-week delay caused by the month-long teachers’ protest. Although SEE results were initially expected in the third week of July, some delay is now anticipated.