School Leaving Certificate
Encyclopedia
The School Leaving Certificate , popularly abbreviated as SLC is the final examination in the secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

 system of Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

 .It is equivalent to O-Level, the academic qualification in UK. Every student must take this examination for completing the 10th grade of their study before they join higher secondary or intermediate level education. The SLC examination is normally scheduled in April to June of every year. It is known as the "iron gate" in Nepal. SLC Examination is the most important examination in the educational system of Nepal for building an academic career.

Examination centers

Nepal is divided into five development regions and each region has many examination centers(as per the Examination Commission's Plan). The examination question differ from region to region but is the same within one single region. Every examination takes place at the same time throughout the whole country. There are different centers for the different students belonging to different school.

Results

About three months after the completion of the SLC, the results are published by the Examination Control Board. Students are categorized into five divisions according to their score:
  • Distinction - above 80%
  • First Division - 60% to 79.99%
  • Second Division - 45% to 59.99%
  • Third Division - 32% to 44.99%


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 it every year because of the difficulty level that the exam has. Since government schools are known for being less rigorous to students as compared to the private schools, government school students are reportedly more likely to be in the pool of students who do not pass the exam. Even though if one fail to get above 40 marks in each subject, they are declared to fail the exam.The result of the SLC is very important to an individual student, since students with high percentage are able to obtain various scholarships for their higher secondary level education.

Criticism

Some educationalists in Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

 criticise the SLC exam by citing its irrelevance in present context and say that the test is neither standardized nor can it assess the capacity of Nepalese
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

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.

External links

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