KATHMANDU: Around 538,000 students are taking the Secondary Education Examinations (SEE) this year.

The examinations will commence on March 16 and conclude on March 27. The examinations will take place from 8 am to 11 am.

The students of Grade X will appear in the examinations under regular, exempted and grade improvement categories.

Known as the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examinations in the past, it is renamed as SEE from this year.

The name of SLC exams, meanwhile, has been given for the Grade XII examinations following the eighth amendment to the Education Act last year.

At a news conference held at the Ministry of Education here on Monday, Education Secretary and Coordinator of the Examination Committee, Shanta Bahadur Shrestha said that all the preparations necessary for the examination had been completed.

He added that coordination had been established with security bodies for the purpose of arranging security during the examinations.

Examinations Controller Ambika Prasad Regmi said 1,923 exam centres were fixed and equal number of exam superintendents assigned for conducting the examinations.

He added that 2,646 assistant superintendents, 22,461 invigilators, 11,716 assistants and 28,846 security personnel would be mobilised for administering the examinations.

Altogether 67,591 human resources would be assigned for this purpose.

Regmi said legal action would be taken against the persons involved in improper conduct and irregularities while their tests would be cancelled.