KATHMANDU: Despite strict examination rules and regulations set by the Higher Secondary Education Board, complaints of irregularities have frequently been filed against examiners.

As per the regulation, an examiner is only allowed to check 200 answer sheets in a week. However, many examiners allegedly check more than 100 answer sheets a day to make more money. “The examiners do not even read the answer sheets thoroughly,” said an examiner, on condition of anonymity, adding, “I finished checking 110 copies in 12 hours. I could not read the answer sheets thoroughly.” An examiner is paid Rs 15 per copy to check the answer sheets.

After the examiner completes his bundle of 200 sheets, s/he is allowed

to stay home for the rest of the week. About 700-800 examiners are employed to check the answer sheets for the HSEB examinations for grade XII. “The checking of copies will complete in about a month,” he said.

Ram Bahadur Khadka, member secretary of the HSEB, said they were strictly implementing the examination code. However, he did not rule out irregularities in the checking of answer sheets. “As we do not keep records of daily checking, some examiners might be violating the code,” Khadka said. “We do not provide examiners with more than

200 answer sheets a week. However, if the educated examiners indulge in such activities, there is very little we can do to check the irregularities,” he added.