Nepal postpones Class 12 examination amid ongoing teachers' protest

National Examination Board (NEB) of Nepal held a meeting on Tuesday evening and decided to defer the examinations following a request from Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, local media reported.

During a meeting with Mahashram Sharma, the NEB chair, and Education Secretary Deepak Kafle, PM Oli asked them to postpone the examination by a few days, the leading Nepali newspaper, The Kathmandu Post, reported.

"The examinations have been postponed by 10 days to May 4. Deferral was necessary as the teachers were not ready to be involved in the process," said Krishna Prasad Sharma, examination controller at the NEB.

Reports suggest that as many as 550,000 students in Nepal are sitting for the examination.

Earlier, the board planned to conduct the exams with the help of civil servants and local units if the teachers refused to cooperate. But the decision was revoked in less than 10 hours.

"The government tried to intimidate us by announcing that it would hold the examinations using civil servants. But it could not stick to that decision even for a few hours. It is good that the government has revoked the decision. I want to warn them not to make such silly decisions in the future," said Nanu Maya Parajuli, co-chair of the Nepal Teachers' Federation.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Teachers' Federation accused the district-level examination coordination committees and the NEB of threatening the teachers and the principals to support in conducting the grade 12 exams.

Furthermore, the Nepal School Employees Council has asked all school staff to close their respective schools and head for Kathmandu with the keys within 24 hours.

"As we have received reports that school staff are being assigned tasks such as student admissions, publication of results, and involvement in the Grade 12 examinations during the ongoing movement, all staff concerned are requested to compulsorily participate in the historic movement currently taking place in Kathmandu by bringing the school keys within 24 hours of receiving this notice," the council said in a statement.

Recently, Nepal's Education Minister Bidya Bhattarai also resigned following the differences she had with PM Oli and Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel over protesting teachers' demands on perks and benefits, as per local media reports.

The teacher's demonstrations and sit-ins in the Maitighar-Naya Baneshwor area of Kathmandu since April 2 have severely disrupted the national enrollment drive and delayed key academic tasks, such as evaluating answer sheets from the recently held Secondary Education Examination (SEE).

The teachers defied the government's instruction to begin student enrollment for the new academic year in Nepal, which started on April 15.