Problems could appear in SLC letter grading system

KATHMANDU: 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 that implementation part of the new system was challenging.

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

Educationist Dr Bidyanath 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 the students getting lower grades were not able to earn the higher studies in their desired subjects.

The Ministry has decided to categorise the 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 would be acceptable only if students are allowed to sit for entrance exams in their desired subjects and the selection process was done based on merit list,” he added.

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