By A Staff Reporter, Kathmandu, Apr 16: Minister for Education Science and Technology Giriraj Mani Pokharel Thursday discussed with the Social Development Ministers of all seven states through e-meeting about different alternative models of examinations that could be conducted after lifting of the lockdown.

In the meeting, Minister Pokharel asked the ministers (of states) to recommend the best way to conduct the examinations.

Minister Pokharel said as the enrollment on grade 11 would start only after two-three months, there was no need to hurry to take the Secondary Education Examination now.

Deepak Sharma, spokesperson at the Ministry, said along with examinations, the Minister discussed about the management of e-learning for students across the country. However, the ministry has not made public
the conclusion of the meeting.

Meanwhile, the National Examination Board (NEB) has said that it has not thought of conducting examinations of Grade 10, 11 and 12 before the present situation returns to normalcy.

Talking with The Rising Nepal, Chandra Mani Poudel, chairperson of the board, said there was no possibility of conducting the examinations before the fear of COVID-19 subsides. Poudel asked the guardians and students not to believe in the rumours that the NEB was planning to conduct the examinations from home centers and nearby centers soon.

However, the NEB has been working with the authorities to conduct the examination in an easy way with a target to facilitate students after the lockdown.

“The NEB wrote a letter to Education Development Coordination Unit (EDCU) across the country on Wednesday with a request to send required number of examination centers in districts to conduct the examinations of all students in the nearest schools. After the end of this crisis, the NEB will conduct the examinations from the schools located in a walking distance. However, this is not the final decision of the board,” Poudel said.

He further clarified that the NEB had not yet fixed the date of the examinations.

“There is no need to worry about rumours that the government is planning to conduct examinations amid the fearful situation,” he added

The NEB has postponed the examinations of Grade 10 (SEE), 11 and 12 due to COVID-19 fear and the lockdown.

Earlier, the board had made public a schedule to conduct examinations of SEE from March 19, of Grade 12 from April 20 and Grade 11 from May 3.

A total 962,000 students were said to be attending the examinations of Grade 11 and 12 while about 500,000 examinees were preparing for the SEE.

Besides the school level examinations, all university examinations were also postponed for an indefinite period.