Kathmandu, July 6, 2006

Dr Mangal Siddhi Manandhar, minister for education and sports, defended the Office of the Controller of the SLC Board of Examinations (OCE) decision not to name the top scorers of the School Leaving Certificate (SLC), saying that OCE decided so to avoid “unintellectual maneouvering”.

“The OCE decided not to announce the names of the toppers of the SLC examination so as to avoid unethical, unprofessional and un-intellectual maneouvering in SLC results,” Manandhar said during an interaction at Reporters’ Club Nepal.

He said the decision would help reduce commercialisation of higher education. Educationist Dr Tirtha Khaniya challenged the government to provide “intellectual logic” behind the OCE’s decision not to publish the names of top ten scorers.

“The UML minister decides not to publish the list of top scorers. Then the Nepali Congress minister annuls it and revives the previous decision. This is not fair. Any government can make either of the two decisions and it should justify its decision, but I prefer to suggest publishing the names of top scorers,” he said.

Educationist Mana Prasad Wagle said the results of SLC board had no credibility as there was no uniformity in examination rules.

Umesh Shrestha, Private and Boarding School Association chairman, said the government should strengthen public schools and improve the SLC results as it is only the private schools that are saving country’s image.

Budget: Beyond the eight-point agreement

At a time when economic issues are being dominated by politics and economy is facing a historic crisis, Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, finance minister is going to present a budget for fiscal year 2006-07 which is termed a ‘tricky’.

On top of the economic problems, questions over the effectiveness of the eight-point pact reached with Maoists is quiring the pitch. Dr Raghav Dhoj Pant, former member of the National Planning Commission and executive director of Institute for Development Studies (IfDS), expressed serious concerns about the status of the economy and economic issues being ‘defeated’ by political developments.

Dr Pant presented a paper ‘An Eight Point Agreement and Budget: Citizens’ Concerns and suggestions’ before journalists at his chamber. He said that decisions have to be taken at the political level on many subjects relating to the economic sector and the budget mainly should be prepared keeping in mind the economic issues connected to the eight point accord.

Dr Pant demanded that the impact of budgetary allocations on the eight point agreement, the country’s law and order situation and development should also be considered.