By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, May 12: The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) has said it would conduct the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) after the end of lockdown.
Although many stakeholders suggested different modes of examination after its postponement for a long time due to COVID-19, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Sunday said that written examination of SEE was mandatory for its validity.
The Ministry made it clear after such suggestions confused the guardians as well as the students preparing for the annual SEE.
Speaking at a webinar organised by the Education Journalist Network (EJON) Sunday, the government officials made it clear that the SEE would be conducted after the situation returned to normalcy following the lifting of the lockdown.
Deepak Sharma, spokesperson at the MOEST, said giving validity to SEE on the basis of internal assessment was impossible without making amendment to the existing law.
“So, the ministry is not in a situation to not take SEE now,” Sharma added.
Chandra Mani Poudel, chairman of National Examination Board, said the NEB was planning to conduct SEE and other examinations two weeks after the lifting of lockdown. However, the NEB was not in a condition to give priority to examination by keeping students’ health at risk, Poudel further said.
He also informed that it was not only Nepal to postpone the examinations, 73 other countries have also put off the previously scheduled examinations following the COVID-19 fear.
According to the board, this year 482,707 examinees from across the country are going to appear in the examinations.
According to chairman Poudel, the NEB has been doing homework to set new sub-centers across the country with a target to manage examination centers for examinees near their home.
Likewise, the NEB is also planning to publish results of the examinations within 45 days from the date examinations are conducted, Poudel said.