Kathmandu, June 10

More than 4,000 Grade X students from Kathmandu alone are likely to be barred from next year’s Secondary Education Examination because they never qualified to get past Grade VIII due to their “low grades”.

In their Grade VIII exams, sources claimed, these students had only scored “D” — which is less than 40 per cent in numerical marking — in the compulsory subjects, including English, Nepali, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies, among others. As per the letter grading system adopted in 2017, students are required to score at least “D+” — a minimum score of 1.6 or more in the traditional numerical marking system — in all compulsory subjects before they are promoted to a higher class, according to sources at the Ministry of Education.

The students in question should have repeated Grade VIII instead of being promoted to Grade IX in the first place. They cannot qualify to sit for the SEE due in March 2020 because they were promoted unduly to higher classes, they said.

Students just maintaining “D” should also sit for examination for an optional subject, according to Phanindra Prasad Ghimire, section officer at Education Development and Coordination Unit.

Optional subject helps students learn local languages, technologies etc. Students can choose from a list of subjects.

According to a notice published by Curriculum Development Centre on the criteria of admission for Grade IX, students must have acquired D-plus in compulsory subjects in Grade VIII examinations. The centre had issued the notice according to the decisions taken by the National Curriculum Development and Evaluation Council’s meeting held on 31 January 2018.

Examination Controller of National Education Board Bishnu Prasad Adhikari said, “Students must have their grades as per the requirements.”

“Forms filled without meeting requirements will not be accepted,” said Nanda Lal Paudel, chief, Education Development and Coordination Unit.

“No amendments will be made to the guidelines. One can’t say s/he doesn’t know the laws,” said Lekha Nath Poudel, director, Curriculum Development Centre.

More than 475,000 students took SEE this year, including 37,528 from Kathmandu.