SEE Likely to Be Affected by House Election on Falgun 21
The Secondary Education Examination (SEE) is expected to be affected due to the House of Representatives member election scheduled for Falgun 21.
SEE Controller Tuka Raj Adhikari of the National Examination Board (NEB) said the SEE examination schedule, which was being prepared for the first week of Chaitra, will be affected after Janak Education Materials Center began ballot-printing work.
He said the Board is preparing to make the SEE routine public by keeping the election at the center, and the situation has arisen where the examination may need to be postponed by a few days.
According to the Board’s calendar, this year’s SEE was planned to begin from the first week of Chaitra 2082. Controller Adhikari said that after Janak Education Materials Center indicated that question paper printing could be delayed by a few days, the SEE may need to be shifted by a few weeks.
“This time, 517,000 have filled out the exam form for the SEE. The examination is conducted in around 72 subjects,” Controller Adhikari told Nagarik. “But since Janak has been printing the question papers, Janak has been stating that when it prints ballots, SEE question paper printing could be delayed by a few days.”
He added, “According to the Board’s calendar, Janak must begin question paper printing from Falgun 1. However, since Janak must also complete ballot printing and the printing of textbooks before the start of the academic session, it has asked for a few days’ time. For this reason, the SEE Board meeting will be held on Magh 5, and taking the election into account, the SEE schedule will be made public with the exam shifted by a few days.”
He stated that, based on the election to be held on Falgun 21 and Janak’s ballot-printing situation, the upcoming SEE may be delayed by a few days compared to the regular schedule.
Ballot Printing Begins; Large-Scale Printing Agreement
Janak Education Materials Center will begin printing sample ballots from Tuesday.
Janak’s Managing Director, Yadunath Paudel, said Janak has reached an agreement with the Election Commission to print a total of 41.6 million ballots for 18,903,689 voters. This includes 20.8 million ballots for the first-past-the-post (direct) category and 20.8 million ballots for the proportional category.
According to Managing Director Paudel, since ballot printing, textbook printing, and SEE question paper printing are all government tasks, the government must now make the correct decision regarding the SEE timeframe.
Textbook Printing Status and Operational Readiness
“The government had assigned Janak the task of printing 17 million school-level textbooks. Of these, 14 million have been printed so far,” Paudel told Nagarik. “The remaining 3 million textbooks will be printed by the end of Falgun.”
He added that textbooks are being prepared for the academic session that begins earlier in the Himalayan districts.
He also said four machines are ready to print 41.6 million ballots. Janak has kept 200 personnel in a state of readiness for this, and storage warehouses are also prepared.
In the first phase, there was an agreement that printing of the 20.8 million proportional ballots must be completed between Poush 22 and within Magh 9.
“Printing of the proportional ballots, in two colors—black and red—will begin from Poush 22,” Managing Director Paudel said. “After that, printing of an additional 20.8 million ballots for the direct category will begin.”
Concern Over SEE Question Paper Printing Timeline
“Ballots, textbooks, and SEE question papers—these three printing tasks are all government work,” he said. “Janak has 450 employees. There are machines as well. But since ballot printing will take some time, it appears that SEE question paper printing cannot be done within the designated time, that is, the first week of Falgun.”
He urged that the SEE Board should publish the exam schedule only after considering this issue, stating that textbooks will be printed until the end of Falgun and that textbook printing and ballot printing will proceed in parallel.
NEB SEE