The umbrella organisation of the private and institutional schools decided not to conduct the test in the organised manner after DoE warned of action. Challenging the existing legal provisions, the Pabson last month had issued a public notice to conduct the exam from January 18 and determined the examination centres accordingly. It had also directed all of its member schools to collect exam fee from Rs 450 to Rs 550 and submit Rs 50 from each student to the its exam preparatory committee.

Following complaints, the DoE two weeks ago directed the Pabson to immediately roll back its decision. The Pabson bounced back from its decision after the DoE last week sought a written clarification for violating the existing legal provision and warned of stern action. “Now, the Pabson will not conduct the exam,” said Pabson General Secretary DK Dhungana. “It’s up to schools whether or not they want to conduct the exam and it will purely be a SLC preparatory test where no student will be disqualified.”

The government in 2011 amended the education regulation barring schools from holding send-up exams to select students for the SLC examinations. However, the private schools were flouting the rule for the past three years. They were holding the send-up exam in an organised way so that they can allow only good students to appear in the SLC examinations for better results.

As per the regulation, students who are studying in grade 10 and have at least 70 percent attendance cannot be barred from the SLC exam. The DoE every year directs schools to abide by the legal provision but such directive is flouted in the lack of proper actions from the respective District Education Offices. Schools that bar students from sitting for SLC exams citing send-up results are liable to a fine of Rs 25,000 and other actions from the respective District Education Office.