Kathmandu, February 22:

Office of the Controller of Examination (OCE) Sanothimi has fixed 1,299 centres for the 400,000 students appearing the School Leaving Certificate examination from March 17.

The OCE added 113 examination centres this year to adjust some 60,000 more students as compared to 347,185 examinees last year.

Ambika Regmi Deputy Controller at the OCE said there was sharp rise in the number of students vying to get through the ‘iron gate’.

“Kathmandu district will have 65 centres, highest in the country,” she informed.

The ratio of invigilator to examinees will be adjusted at 1 to 25 to ensure proper conduction of the examination and each centre will have a superintendent and up to two deputies based on the number of students, Regmi said.

A group of 10 security personnel will be deployed for security of the examination centre, she further said. For the first time, around 150 students from the five open schools in the five development regions are attending the examination this year.

The education ministry had authorised five schools, each in a development region, to conduct open school which run classes on Saturdays to facilitate those who could not attend regular school.

“The exact number of students from open school appearing the SLC examination this year will be known a few days later only,” she said.