The National Examination Board (NEB) released the results of the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) for Class 10 on Thursday, revealing a concerning trend of high failure rates in compulsory subjects.
A significant number of students failed to achieve a passing grade, particularly in mathematics. Alarmingly, 177,985 students out of 464,785 who took the compulsory mathematics exam received a non-grade (NG), indicating they did not meet the minimum requirement.
Science and technology followed a similar pattern, with 126,933 students failing from a total of 464,332 examinees. English also saw a substantial number of failures, with 113,383 students receiving a non-grade out of 464,719 test-takers.
The failure rate was slightly lower in optional subjects like economics (69,416 NG out of 227,840), optional mathematics (20,352 NG out of 160,269), environment (3,511 NG out of 21,130), and geography (data not provided).
This year’s SEE results were based on the new letter grading guidelines implemented in 2078 (2022 D), which separates theoretical and internal evaluation marks. Students must score at least 35% in theoretical exams (minimum 26.25 marks for 75-mark exams) and 40% (minimum 10 marks for 25-mark internal exams) to pass a subject.
Given the high failure rates, the NEB has scheduled a grade enhancement exam on 2nd August and 3rd August for students who received NG in up to two subjects. Those who failed more than two subjects will have to wait until March to retake exams only in the subjects they failed.
With only 47.86% of students passing the SEE this year, the high failure rates, particularly in essential subjects like mathematics and science, raise concerns about the quality of education and preparedness of students for higher studies.
