BHAKTAPUR: For the fourth consecutive year less than 50 per cent students could clear School Leaving Certificate exam, whose result the Office of the Controller of Examinations announced on Friday.

According to OCE, a total of 574,685 had filled the forms for SLC exam, while only 405,338 students appeared in the tests under the regular category, of which 192,267 (109,043 boys and 83,224 girls) passed the exams held between March 19 and 27.

Among the 136,051 students, who sat for the exempted category, 18,778 (8,700 boys and 10,078 girls) passed the tests. OCE stated that 21,247 students secured distinction, while 90,176 passed in the first division. As many as 76,482 students passed in the second division and 4,362 in the third division.

The pass percentage, however, increased to 47.43 pc from last year’s 43.91 per cent. The pass percentage was 41.57 in 2012 and 47.16 in 2011. However, 55.50 per cent of examinees had passed SLC in 2010.

The OCE cancelled the results of 612 students who were termed ineligible for various reasons; the results of 1,199 examinees were withheld, 5,099 students dropped out and 83 students were expelled. A total of 3,288 examinees from technical and vocational stream had appeared in the exams and their results will be published within a week, the OCE informed.

This year, OCE introduced grading system for SLC examinees from the technical stream. All the examinees from this stream will get grades as per marks scored in the exams rather than pass/fail tags.

Speaking at a press meet, Bishwo Prakash Pandit, Secretary at the Ministry of Education, attributed the increased pass percentage to teachers’ dedication and hard work.

He blamed teachers’ involvement in politics for the poor pass percentage. “The formation of Teachers’ Federation is one of examples of teachers’ engagement in politics,” he added. “Education sector should be free of politics and teachers should focus on teaching rather than spending time on political activities to improve the results,” said Pandit. He added that the government was planning to improve the SLC pass percentage by improving pre-primary education, as well as introducing English as medium of teaching in every school. Bishnu Bahadur Dware, examination controller, OCE, said most students failed in mathematics followed by science and English.

“The students who have failed in not more than two subjects can appear in chance exam which will be held from August 5 to 12,” he added. The results could be viewed on www.moe.gov.np www.doe.gov.np, www.soce.gov.np, www.slc.ntc.net.np, among others.