KATHMANDU - The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (the Ministry) has decided that all the students who became Non-Graded (NG) in the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) this year can take the Supplementary (grade increase) examination. Earlier, there was a provision in SEE that only students who got NG in maximum two subjects could take such a supplementary examination. According to the National Examination Board (NEB), all the candidates who failed to get the grade in the SEE examination conducted in April 2024 as regular examinees and who were absent in that examination are also eligible to participate in this supplementary examination, quoted the news. 

Similarly, there was news that the government has launched a program to teach SEE supplementary exam candidates by university students. After the Ministry wrote to the universities to help the candidates taking the examination, Tribhuvan University (TU) has instructed the TU colleges and affiliated colleges to make their students studying in the final year of undergraduate and postgraduate levels to teach the students taking the supplementary examination, there was in the news.

The supplementary examination will start from August 7 for all the NG students that was scheduled earlier on July 18 and 19 for students who got NG only in two subjects by NEB. Some 52 percent of the students obtained NG in SEE.

The news that the results of the SEE examination of public schools in various districts and regions were poor was also published last week. There was also news that Umesh Khatri from Raptisonari rural municipality of Banke, who wrote SEE by his foot, got 2.92 GPA.

The decision of the Ministry that all the examinees who are Non-Graded in SEE to be allowed to sit in the supplementary exam showed that the Minister was shocked by the result of SEE, Prof. Dr. Manprasad Wagle wrote in a Letter to the Editor of Kantipur daily! It was mentioned in the letter that after the introduction of letter grading, the first practice of NG the results of the examinees who did not get even the minimum marks, was thwarted at its birth. This decision has been violating the country's constitution, rules, laws, policies, guidelines, curriculum format, accused the letter.

In an article written by Jeevan Kafle in Kantipur daily about the low success rate in mathematics in SEE exam, if you answer a question correctly in mathematics, you will get a good mark, if you do poorly, you will not get any mark, but in other subjects, if you answer poorly, you still get some marks. Because of this, the number of students passing in mathematics was low, he argued.

The Government of Nepal has formed a 5-member high-level committee headed by former High Court Judge Shekhar Prasad Paudel to find and manage the assets of the Nepal Sanskrit School.

There was news that a bilateral MoU has been signed between the Ministry and the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation (MoEWRI) for providing workplace-based vocational training to the students of the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT). According to the news, this agreement will allow the students of CTEVT to participate as trainees in the projects of the MoEERI.

Colleges operating in affiliation with foreign universities in Nepal are not among top 1000. This is not according to the guidelines, the physical infrastructure is not to the standards, the students are passed through fake exams, the scholarship is not given according to the rules, and the quality is not assured, mentioned the Report of the Expert Committee formed under the Coordination of former Secretary Shankar Koirala by the Ministry to study about the colleges running in Nepal with affiliation of foreign universities, news have published. According to the news, if foreign university programs are to be conducted in Nepal, it is suggested in the report that maximum four programs of a university that is among the top 500 of in international rankings should be allowed. The news came out through the media that the Ministry has request not to enroll students in colleges that run the program of foreign universities that do not fall in top1000 ranking.

Similarly, the Ministry has launched a new website for career counseling. According to the news, the necessary information for students, parents, teachers and local level has been kept in separate tabs on the website.
There was news that Minister Sumana Shrestha, while speaking in the National Assembly, said that even though she only took the stand that teachers should be in the classroom but should not be involved in party-politics, teachers accused her of terrifying them.

There was news that the University has created a new guideline for those who are candidates for the positions of University Dean, Campus Chief, and Examination Controller etc. to declare that they are not affiliated to any political party. After Prof. Dr. Keshar Jung Baral became the Vice-Chancellor of TU, regulations regarding the appointment of Dean, Executive Director, Controller of Examinations, Principal and Campus Chief were introduced. According to the news, in the regulation, there will be a three-member selection committee for selecting and recommending for the above posts of any faculty or institute. After the committee recommends the names of the best three candidates for the post of any faculty or institute of TU, the TU Council will appoint the designated post from among those recommended.

The Free Student Union of Central Ayurveda Bidyapith (Campus)  of Nepal Sanskrit University since March 12, had pad-locked the Office of the Head of the Bidyapith, Administration and Account Section with seven demands including running a hospital, provision of teachers according to the standards set by the Medical Education Commission, internship allowance for students and provision of e-library. There was news that there has been no hearing even after 4 months.

Communist Party of Nepal (UML) in short CPN (UML) President KP Sharma Oli's statement that many students failed in SEE because the teachers are not of good quality has come to the news. It was reported that in a program organized by CPN (UML)'s fraternal student organization of Rupandehi to honor students with a GPA of 3.6 and above in SEE, Oli commented that the results have dropped because of the teachers. 

This is one of rare mention of education by the leadership of this party! Is this some kind of counter to the popularity of the Minister of Education from RSP or National Independent Party ?

The purpose of this news review is to classify and synthesize the educational content of the week and provide objective comments from the point of view of social justice and creative padagogy to the policy makers and stakeholders in one place. In this joint effort of Center for Education Policy and Practice (CEPP) and Edukhbar, the news of daily newspapers Kantipur, Gorkhapatra and The Himalayan Times, online news portals Online Khabar, Setopati and Ratopati and Himalaya TV and Nepal Television from 29 June-5 July 2024 are covered - Editor.

Read last week's content : Last week in education 

Read it in Nepali : एसईईमा एनजी विद्यार्थीलाई अवसर नै अवसर !