Stating that the letter grading system in the School Leaving Certificate Examinations (SLC) introduced by the Ministry of Education was ill-prepared, educationists have claimed its implementation part was challenging.

The Ministry on Thursday decided to implement the new system in the SLC examinations- a concept proposed by the World Bank for reforms in education.

Educationist Dr Bidhyanath Koirala argued that the new step was taken in the name of improving education’s quality under the duress of the Word Bank without studying Nepal’s educational system.

He said that the grading system would be irrelevant if students getting lower grades were not able to earn the higher studies in their desired subjects.

The Ministry has decided to categorise students in nine grades including A+, A, B+, B, C+, C, D, E and N under the letter grading system. “N” stands for “not graded”. “It will be acceptable only if students are allowed to sit for entrance exams in their desired subjects and the selection process is done on the basis of merit list,” he added.

Likewise, Acting Examinations Controller of Higher Secondary Education Board Santosh Aryal said some problems will obviously arise after implementing the new system. He said that  students getting lower than grade “C” will have hard times to get enrolled in the faculty of science.