Renu Kshetry

Kathmandu, March 6:

Board officials of the School Leaving Certificate examination that is scheduled for March 27 are in a dilemma whether to conduct the examination during the security-sensitive period, all because, the Office of Controller of Examination (OCE) is facing financial crunch. “Our concern is security for question papers and collection, which needs more security personnel for the task during this crisis,” said Birendra Kumar Singh, OCE Controller. Singh said nearly Rs 5 crores have already been sent to all the districts for conductng the examination. The total yearly budget for the OCE is Rs 9 Crore, of which around Rs 5 Crore is for the employees’ salary and administrative work.

“Most of the districts have asked for more money for security purposes, which tots up to an extra Rs 20 lakh,” said Singh. “The Finance Ministry should at least release the fund, especially during such a critical period,” said Singh. “We have been urging the MoF to release the fund.” Each centre will have 10 security personnel. Besides, there will be 946 superintendents. Last year, there were 905 centres. This year there will be 946. Singh said.

According to OCE, this year 3,02,950 students applied for the examination, of which the failure trend has been 15 per cent, which will make around 2,500 examinees less than last year. This year the number of regular students is 2, 41, 894 while that of those exempted is 61,056. Last year, only 2,83,000 had appeared in the examination.