SLC a test of our ability

The first day of the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) exam has passed off peacefully. It is a worrisome development one has to now pray that violence does not mar what is normally a basic official exercise of immense public importance. SLC has been the latest in the series of such events which call for a serene environment. An exam is a difficult thing for the students and the parents too. Even so, an unknown burden of security concern has been added to the exam fever which is likely to hamper students’ performance. That will naturally have an impact on the overall outcome.As in previous years, the government claims to have arranged adequate security measures and has requested all aspirants to appear in the examination without fear. However, the guardians have been finding it hard to accept it and have been flocking to the exam centres. It is indeed a matter of concern to everybody. Even the United Nations has expressed its doubts and has urged all parties to the conflict to help the students to complete their examinations in a peaceful atmosphere. It is extremely important for all those concerned not to disrupt the exams. In fact, it should not have taken others to tell us that the exams need to be conducted in a free and fair manner. It is in fact a shameful thing on our part to have tampered with even an exam’s course. How can we be expected to handle bigger issues?

Ambika Pandey, Chitawan

Peace first

Nepal Tourism Board CEO Tek Bahadur Dangi fails to acknowledge that the RNA has soldiers with automatic weapons stationed all over Solukhumbu and the Annapurna circuit. What’s more, he fails to understand that tourists work in their own countries and then go to Nepal for a calm and peaceful holiday. Tourists are not impressed by threats from people with guns and grenades for donations to their cause. The security situation has become desperate as the country slips into a dangerous, heartbreaking and interminable impoverishment. Graft and corruption are national pastimes as you continue to bicker amongst yourselves. People like Tek Bahadur Dangi seem to think that tourists are blind and have no feelings, if he thinks Nepalis can promote themselves out of this one. I visited Nepal four times in 2004 but I have no plans to visit this year, 2005.

John Harpingvale, via e-mail

Aim higher

This is in reference to the news “TU-affiliated language school misses mark by miles,” (THT, March 28). There are many more colleges like the College of International Languages (CIL) affiliated to Tribhuvan University which have failed to live up to the expectations. Many a learning centre has always plodded below the mark for various reasons. The major drawbacks have been the lack of motivation on the part of most teachers and students as well as scarcity of trained manpower, who would actually give direction and meaning to the goals of the institution. The political climate, to say the least, has also not helped the colleges and similar such institutes. The majority of those enrolled in CIL have no aim of rising to a scholarly level, as all they are after is to fortify their chances of getting a job abroad. What is needed is a serious input from various quarters, including the students’ desire to learn. But going by the way students have behaved at the nation’s pioneer university, TU, where few departments have been set on fire more than once, one fails to imagine these institutes evolving into proper shape anytime soon.

Anmol M Pandey, Birgunj