School Leaving Certificate (Nepal)

The School Leaving Certificate , popularly abbreviated as SLC,^[1] is the final examination in the secondary school systhem of Nepal.^[2] It is equivalent to GCSE, the academic qualification in England. Every student must take this examination for completing the 10th grade of their study ( according to new Education Act ), before they join higher secondary or intermediate level education (12th grade). The SLC or SEE examination is normally scheduled in April to June of every year. It was known as the "iron gate" in Nepal. In reality, however, there are indeed more obstacles regarding higher-level studies after the examination.^[2] The SLC Examinations are the most important examination in the educational system of Nepal for building an academic career. The government has a great determination that the grade system that has been recently implemented in the SLC examination will help the country to increase the literacy rate. As the new Education Act 2016 (2073) has been implemented, the SLC examination will be take place in Grade 10 as national level examination whereas the examination of Grade 10 will be known as Secondary Education Examination (S.E.E)

Examination centres

Nepal is divided into five development regions and seventy-five districts, and each region has many examination centers (as per the Examination Commission's Plan). The examination questions differ from region to region, but are the same within one single region, so if the exam is cancelled only one region is affected and only the questions of that region have to be prepared. Every examination takes place at the same time throughout the whole country. There are different centres for students belonging to different schools.

Results

About two and a half to three months after the completion of the SLC, the results are published by the Examination Control Board. Students are categorised into five divisions according to their score:

Despite such a low percentage requirement to pass the examination, many students (more than 50%), mostly students of governmental schools in rural areas of Nepal, still fail the exam every year due to its level of difficulty. Since government schools are known for being less rigorous to students compared to private schools, government school students are reportedly less likely to pass the exam. Even if one fails to get above 40 marks in each subject, they are declared failed. The result of the SLC is very important to an individual student, since students with a high percentage are able to obtain various scholarships for their higher secondary level education.

The Government Of Nepal has now formulated and implemented a new system for SLC. The Government has changed the system that has proven quite advantageous and disadvantageous in its implementing year. The students do not fail in the exam according to new system, but those having low GPI don't get admission for higher level studies. That's why the system has been getting a lot of criticism.

Criticism

Some educationalists in Nepal criticise the SLC exam by citing its irrelevance in the present context and say that the test is neither standardised nor can it assess the capacity of Nepalese children. The education experts, for the past three decades, have been asking the government to review and revise the SLC examinations but the government, they say, is running the same old mechanism that will still be running in the same way for several decades more. And also there is no trend of SLC examination results in a continuum, rather it is so haphazard that the SLC results can not be trusted, they say.^[3]

References