Kathmandu, March 27 More than 600,000 students are appearing in the School Leaving Certificate examinations scheduled to be held from March 31 to April 8. Krishna Prasad Kapri, examination controller, Office of the Controller of the Examinations, today said a total of 615,553 examinees from across the country would appear in the SLC examinations. A total of 1,943 examination centres have been set up for the purpose. Of the total examinees, 452,881 are from the regular category, while 159,417 are from the exempted category. Likewise, 3,255 are appearing in the examinations under the technical category. “Preparations for the examinations are over as we have already sent question papers and answer sheets to the respective districts,” said Kapri. OCE will deploy 72,896 employees and security persons to conduct exams in a peaceful manner. Kapri further said that Kathmandu district has 95 exam centres for 36,886 examinees in the district, while Manang district has only one exam centre for 69 examinees. Ministry of Education had earlier decided to introduce letter grading system in SLC for both the general and technical/vocational streams from this year. Kapri has urged students and other concerned not to get confused with the letter grading system. “Although the letter grading system is new to students, there is no need for them to worry,” he said. Instead of numbers, examinees will be awarded grades as per the marks obtained in various subjects.