Students have started protesting against Education Minister Sasmit Pokharel, who is also the government spokesperson, alleging negligence in publishing the results of Class 12. Accusing him of playing with the future of thousands of students by publishing the results in a hurry, they have demanded Minister Pokharel's resignation through social media platforms TikTok, Reddit and Facebook. 

Some students protested at Maitighar in Kathmandu on Thursday, expressing dissatisfaction with the results. They say that the students' future was affected by serious errors made in the answer sheet test in the name of publishing the results quickly. 

Dissatisfaction started pouring out on social media as soon as the National Examination Board published the results of Class 12 on 5th Asad. Strong anger is being expressed against Minister Pokharel on platforms like 'TikTok' and 'Reddit', which are used more by the young generation. Hashtags and posters like 'Resign Sasmit Pokharel' and 'Grade 12 Unfair' are being shared on TikTok. An account called ‘Grade 12 Unfair’ has been opened demanding the resignation of the Education Minister. 

A video posted by a TikTok account called ‘Chakradtruth’ reads, ‘The government’s haste has played with the future of thousands of students, doesn’t it bother you? Resign Nepokid!’ Another account called ‘Packet Spy’ and a user named Vivek have posted a picture of Education Minister Pokharel and raised questions about the system itself. Vivek has written, ‘We made him powerful but he did bad things to us. He ruined our future, investment and hard work. Resign, resign, resign!’ The video has been viewed more than 334,000 times in a short time.

In some of the videos going viral on social media, students have expressed their problems and anger while crying. A video posted by a user named Anjum has been viewed more than 537,000 times, in which she has raised serious questions about the functioning of the examination board and the ministry.

‘Do you do JPT (Jathabhabi) just to check quickly? Now, in the name of rechecking (re-examination), they are charging Rs 500 to 1000 per subject. Are the results also a business now?’ She said, ‘I got an overall ‘A’ grade, but this is completely unfair. I couldn’t believe it when I looked at the marksheet. A student who excelled in the exam and never came below ‘A’ got a ‘C Plus’. The result is not just a number drawn on paper! It is the future, dreams and hard work of thousands of students.’

Apart from TikTok, similar anger is also seen on another platform popular among the youth, ‘Reddit’. In the Reddit community called ‘NepalPlus2’, a user with the username ‘DJed9743’ has criticized the government’s propaganda-oriented style. ‘It was advertised that the results were released in 35 days and a record was set, can it be taken seriously? It would have been better if the results had been released properly. The paper has also been checked in the same way. You know how much is written correctly and how much is written incorrectly, and you have expectations accordingly. On top of that, setting a price of Rs 1,000 for retotaling is sheer loot.'

There were complaints of negligence in the SEE results released on April 28. According to the results released within 30 days of the exam, 65.98 students had passed. Retotaling without understanding the results had changed the results of more than 5 percent of students. Whereas in previous years, the rate of change in results during retotaling was only around 3 percent. The number of students applying for retotaling had also increased compared to the previous year. It was also found that 1,000 answer sheets were missing from among the applications.

After widespread protests, Education Minister Pokharel had claimed that there was no error in the publication of the Class 12 results. He had tried to reassure students and parents by giving a 5-point clarification on his Facebook page last Saturday. But the students are not satisfied with that. In the minister's post, Sameep Khanal wrote, 'Why do you play with the future of students in the race to get results quickly? My sister's GPA was sure to be above 3.8, how come she got only 3.58 when she got the same result in pre-boards? She is now under serious mental stress.'

Another user Gauraj Raj Bista commented that it is unfair to impose the financial burden of the error in the answer sheet test on the students. He wrote, 'Many students have complained that the result in the answer sheet test was different than expected. There may be human error during the test, but if the student's result is different during retotaling, there should be a system to refund the fee charged for it. The system of having to pay the fee again even if the student is not at fault is unfair, this rule should be changed.'

Kirti Bhusal mentioned that for students, its fairness and reliability are more important than the speed of the result. 'We have invested years of hard work, dreams and future in this result. Therefore, the questions raised will not end just because the passing percentage has increased or the results have come out quickly,' she wrote, 'We are not asking for any special facilities from the state, we are only seeking an impartial evaluation of our efforts and accountability from the responsible body.' Education Minister Pokharel announced that a committee has been formed to investigate the matter. On Thursday, she wrote on social media, 'A committee has been formed to conduct sampling tests of answer sheets and 'verification' of test scores and data entry, with representation from the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Sports and the Undersecretary of the Curriculum Development Center.'