Kathmandu, April 3, 2006

Question papers for this year’s School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination, which began on March 27, were openly sold in the market. Each day, the question paper for the next day’s exam was available, of course, for a price. The question paper of Optional Maths exam scheduled to be held tomorrow, is already out in the market. This writer has one. There are two more SLC exams are left but question papers for those two subjects are also available in the market. “I could not believe my eyes as the real question paper was exactly the same as the one I had been given the previous day to solve by some students,” said Niraj Sharma (name changed), a science teacher. The question papers available in the market have either been photocopied or copied by hand. These are being sold for Rs 500 to Rs 8,000. The year and subject name on the photocopied sheets have however been obliterated. The questions are only in English and not in Nepali. Due to this, Sharma speculated that perhaps the copies were made from worksheets that were stolen before being sent to print. Gajendra Lal Pradhan, controller at the Office of Controller of Examination (OCE), however, ruled out this possibility as the seals of the question papers are broken only at 7 am, just before the examination starts, and that too in the presence of the subject teachers. “The seal is broken to check whether the questions are as per the grid or the figures are correct or not. If any such mistakes appear, we inform all the five regional development education directorates so that they can relay the message to all the examination centres,” said Pradhan.

NTB jockeys IT to lure tourists

Kathmandu, April 3, 2006

There is subtle yet noticeable change in Nepal Tourism Board’s (NTB’s) efforts to boost the number of summer tourists to Nepal. The change is in the form of its new-found focus on using information technology tools to generate more tourists for Nepal. NTB has set April 19 as the deadline before it prepares all its IT tools, when it is going to launch its new product branded ‘Naturally Nepal: Once is not enough’ in New Delhi, following its unveiling on March 5 in Nepal and March 11 in Berlin.

Giving information about the plans, Tek Bahadur Dangi, told The Himalayan Times, NTB is preparing to reach outto prospective tourists to Nepal through the web. For this, it is updating its webesite, creating numerous links to all the websites related to airlines and hotels that are willing to join hands in NTB’s efforts by preparing special summer packages to boost tourist numbers. NTB is also planning a massive campaign in the print media in India and some reputed Indian web sites, which can offer information or links to related websites on Nepali tourism.