Kathmandu, September 30:

As per the government’s new regulation, around 2,000 private students studying in the Valley will not be allowed to appear in the School Leaving Certificate examinations this year. An Office of Controller of Examination (OCE), Sanothimi, notice in the month of Shrawan, said the students who have cleared class eight need more than two years of preparation to be eligible for the exams. Earlier, the students who had passed class eight needed to clear the examinations for the next two years under direct supervision of a secondary level teacher to be eligible for the SLC exams. “The government has issued the notice very late,” said Bal Ram Thapa, vice-president of Educational Institute Association-Nepal (EIA-Nepal) during a press conference here today.”The notice should have been issued at the beginning of the academic session.”

Thapa said that if the government is dedicated to improving the quality of education, it should either work towards developing alternative means of education, such as open schools, or should provide equal opportunity to all students. President of EIA-Nepal Bal Ram Poudel said the government was only discouraging the institutions that are providing tution facilities to the students who cannot pursue their studies due to various reasons. “The government has also introduced a new rule that makes it mandatory for the private students to submit their registration forms at the government schools from where they passed their grade eight. It will be difficult to implement as most of the students in the valley are from distant places. The government schools have already declined to approve it,” said Poudel.

The EIA-Nepal has knocked on the doors of the Ministry of Education and Sports, concerned district education office and OCE, but to no avail. “The government response has been irresponsible and discouraging. The government is indirectly punishing the students themselves,” Poudel said. Mamta Sundas, a student, said she could not understand why the students were being made to suffer despite completed all the necessary procedures. “This is a case of intolerable discrimination and totally unfair to us,” Sundas said.