SLC Grading system draws criticism

15 DEC 2015, Kathmandu - As the government prepares to introduce grading system for School Leaving Certificate (SLC) test, education experts and stakeholders have criticised the decision saying that it was announced without making any preparations.

They claimed that it was meaningless to introduce the new test score evaluation

system when the curriculum, examination pattern and way of checking answer sheets are still traditional. They recommended the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Office of the Controller of Examination (OCE) to first change the examination pattern, before adopting the grading system.

Speaking at an interaction organised by National Campaign for Education in the Capital on Sunday, Prof Lekhnath Poudel said that introducing grading system at the present scenario will have negative impact.

“Introducing grading system just for the sake of using new evaluation system is useless,” he said, adding that neither the teachers nor the officials are clear on how it works.

He suggested the MoE to train teachers and officials involved in result publication first. The government has decided to adopt grading system, ending the 84-year-old marking system from the current academic system.

Under the grading system, the test scores will be judged as follows: “A+” for students securing between 90 to 100 percent marks; “A” for students scoring between 80 and 89 percent marks; “B” for students scoring 60 to 79 percent marks; “C” for students scoring between 40 to 59 percent marks; “D” for students scoring 25 to 39 percent marks; “E” for students scoring below 25 percent marks; and “F” for students who have failed their exams. The new grades, however, will be applied to 4,500 students taking their SLC examination from 99 technical schools from the country.

“The system is good in itself. However, adopting it without consulting the stakeholders will not yield the good results,” said Mohan Gyawali, former president of Nepal Teachers Union. On December  10, a meeting of the National Curriculum Development and Evaluation Council had taken the decision to adopt the grading system. This SLC examination for the current academic session is set to begin on March 19, 2015. Examination Controller Bishnu Bahadur Dware said there could be a problem if the new system is introduced hastily, without preparations.