The SEE answer sheet testing has begun in most districts of Lumbini Province. Preparations are underway to start it from Friday morning as it is taking time to prepare the roster in some districts.

According to the Directorate of Education and Social Development, Lumbini, the testing has not started in Dang, Pyuthan, Rolpa and Banke districts out of the 12 districts of the province. The Examination Coordination Committee in those districts met on Thursday to prepare the roster and it has been decided to start the testing of both English and Nepali subjects from Friday. Harilal Aryal, Acting Director General of the Directorate, said that the testing has started in other districts and instructions have been given to complete the testing within a maximum of three days.

This year, a total of 89,017 candidates, including 72,080 candidates in the regular (general and technical stream) stream and 16,937 candidates in the grade promotion stream, have participated in the SEE examination from Lumbini Province. 338 examination centers have been determined in all 12 districts of the province for the conduct of the examination. Although all those centers have been instructed to start checking the answer sheets from Thursday, the test could not be held on Thursday because some center heads delayed preparing the roster.

He said that the test has started in many districts. ‘The answer sheet test has already started in many districts,’ he said, ‘The centers that could not start on Thursday are preparing for the test from Friday morning by keeping the answer sheets at the nearest police office.’ He said that permanent teachers teaching at the secondary level and if it is not possible to do so only with permanent teachers, temporary or contract teachers should be included in the roster to get the answer sheet checked.

The directorate has instructed to use the ‘Tab One’ and ‘Tab Two’ system to keep records of the marks obtained in the answer sheets so that there are no errors. There is a place to write the symbol number of the student and the marks obtained. Director General Aryal said that the management was to write the answer sheets in both tabs one and two in numbers and letters and send them to the District Education Coordination Unit within three days in the presence of the center head, security body and those who checked the answer sheets. ‘Since the District Education Coordination Units do not have the manpower and software to computerize the scores, discussions are ongoing on whether to send them to the Examination Control Office or keep them in the units,’ he said, ‘This will probably be decided by tomorrow.’

Answer sheet testing has started in all centers in Rupandehi since Thursday. Bishnu Prasad Panthi, head of the Education Coordination Unit, said that answer sheet testing has started in all 58 examination centers in the district and that they, along with the Chief District Officer and the Chief of Security, are monitoring and supervising it. ‘The testing is being done in many centers so that it can be completed on Thursday,’ he said. ‘If the centers with many students cannot complete the test today, we have made arrangements to keep the answer sheets at the nearest police station so that the test can be done tomorrow.’ He said that preparations have been made to test the answer sheets of each day on the same day in all centers in Rupandehi.