WI THOUT F EAR O R F A V O U R Nepal’s largest selling English daily Vol XXVIII No. 150 | 8 pages | Rs.5 O O Printed simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj 34.5 C 13.7 C Friday, July 24, 2020 | 09-04-2077 Nepalgunj Jomsom Indecision over grade 12 final exams worries students and colleges Experts and school operators are against the nation-wide ban on schools when the Covid-19 threat is not uniform and as ‘unrecognised’ virtual classes restart. BINOD GHIMIRE their internal evaluation. The schools KATHMANDU, JULY 21 have sent them to the board but it could still be a month before certifi- In normal times Sanskar Pandit, 18, cates are issued to the 482,219 students would have been waiting for his grade whose grades their schools sent. 12 results now. The high school exami- As for grade 11, the board on nations would have been held in April Tuesday endorsed a working proce- and the results out in the first week of dure, allowing respective schools to August. But it’s an uncertain time for evaluate their students. As in the case Pandit and around half a million oth- of SEE, the board will just validate the ers who were preparing for grade 12 internal evaluations made by the examinations when the lockdown was schools. announced in March. But grade 12 grades are much more “I am worried I might have to lose important than those of grades 10 and one year,” said Pandit. 11. With the letter grade system intro- While the government is preparing duced for SEE in 2015, it has been eas- to publish the results of Secondary ier for students to choose the subjects Education Examination (SEE) based they want to study in grades 11 and 12, on the candidates’ assessment by their the grade 12 final grades are impor- POST PHOTO: BEEJU MAHARJAN own schools, and doing initial work on tant for what students take up in col- Morning yoga sessions resume at the Uma-Maheshwar temple premises in Kirtipur after the government lifted the coronavirus lockdown. the grade 11 results, no decision has lege. Subjects in high demand like been made on grade 12. medicine and engineering have a cer- Chandra Mani Poudel, chairperson tain threshold of grades to pursue. at the examination board, said he was Subham Shrestha, a twelfth grader not in a position to tell about the grade planning to studying engineering, 12 examinations. said, “If the government allows the Attorney general questions verdict on Koirala case “As of now we plan to hold the schools to send the marks based on the board exams for grade 12. However, internal exams, it will negatively this might change if the government affect the performance of the students Former justices worry about dignity of court as a wife murderer is released after sentence of lower court was commuted. decides otherwise,” he told the Post. like me, who have secured average The government decided to lift the marks in their internal exams but of life imprisonment with confisca- prison sentence as he has the respon- lockdown with restrictions starting who are working hard to secure better tion of his property. Dhakal’s body sibility to raise his children, who Wednesday but the board has no grades in the board examinations.” had been cut into pieces and burnt. have been without their parents for a schedule or concrete plan on how the “Whether I will be able to take up The decision had later been upheld long time. examinations will be held. engineering would depend on my final by the Patan Appellate Court. Koirala’s action had been a crime of On June 10, almost three months results because one has to secure at According to the Muluki Ain (coun- passion as he was then having an after the Cabinet decided to postpone least ‘C’ grade in aggregate in 11 and try code), life imprisonment sentence affair with another woman. The other the SEE, the government decided to 12. I am scared that the teachers could is equivalent to a 20-year sentence woman, Tara Regmi, who had served a cancel the examination and subse- be biased towards the students who although the new criminal code that one-year jail sentence for aiding and quently the Ministry of Education performed poorly in their internal came into effect in 2018 replacing the abetting the murder, received Koirala authorised respective schools to send tests,” he said. Muluki Ain has raised that to 25 years. outside the prison gate. the grades of their students based on >> Continued on page 3 Following the court’s verdict, The dignity of the judiciary has Koirala was released on Thursday been questioned with the latest ver- after serving eight-and-a-half years dict, according to Balaram KC, a for- jail term as that was what was left of mer Supreme Court justice. his sentence after the revision. KC said there are many errors in “We received the petition from the the decision. “It is the right of the attorney general late today,” said trial court to fix the quantum of pun- Bhadrakali Pokhrel, spokesperson for ishment,” KC told the Post. POST PHOTO: ANISH REGMI the Supreme Court. >> Continued on page 5 Former Armed Police DIG Ranjan Koirala leaves the Dillibazaar prison premises on Thursday. According to an official at the Attorney General’s office, the TIKA R PRADHAN The petition comes as former petition has questioned the deci- KATHMANDU, JULY 23 Supreme Court judges, among other sion to reduce the jail-term using legal practitioners, decried the deci- an outdated law. The official said The Office of the Attorney General on sion of a bench comprising Chief it has also claimed that the seri- Thursday filed a petition at the Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana ousness of the crime does not Supreme Court seeking a review of its and Justice Tej Bahadur KC to shorten allow reduction of the punish- June 29 decision to shorten the prison the life imprisonment sentence ment and has claimed that the sentence handed to Ranjan Koirala, a ordered by a lower court by 11 years. top court made improper use of former deputy inspector general of Kathmandu District Court had the existing legal provisions. the Armed Police Police Force, con- found Koirala guilty of pre-mediated The Supreme Court, in its victed for the murder of his wife murder of his wife Gita Dhakal in June 29 verdict, had said it had POST PHOTO eight-and-a-half years ago. January 2012 and handed a sentence decided to shorten Koirala’s As schools are late to reopen, a local unit in Lamjung has started classes in the community. C M Y K FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2020 | 02 MEDLEY Inside the Post Quote of the day Indecision over grade 12 final exams worries National students and colleges, Page 1 Most of these vehicles have not been following the health and safety guidelines issued by the government, raising the risk of coronavirus spread, as cautioned by public health experts. “As of now we plan to hold the board exams for grade 12. However, this Opinion might change if the government Indigenous voices have said that Chepang homes were destroyed because they are ‘a soft target’ and are ‘poor and voiceless’. Indeed, the Chpeang community are decides otherwise.” among the most marginalised and poor ethnic groups in Nepal. Chandra Mani Poudel, chairman of the examination board, Money on holding the grade 12 finals. For more than two decades, Indian farmer Ravindra Kajal cultivated rice the way his forefathers had—every June he flooded his fields with water before hiring an army of farmhands to plant paddy seedlings. World Most read online The city of Tokyo announced a record 366 new daily coronavirus cases on Thursday, exceeding 300 for the first time as Japan begins a four-day weekend Lockdown lifting was required, but Covid-19 threat is with many people joining a tourism promotion campaign that the government is pushing despite concerns of a new wave of infections nationwide. still high, public health experts warn The government on Tuesday said it had decided to lift the coronavirus lockdown starting Tuesday midnight, with some restrictions in place, signalling that Food & Travel Nepal is by and large open, but public health experts say the move was taken in When western mainstream media is not misrepresenting Asian food, it is often haste without proper consultations, as the Covid-19 threat level is still high. portraying non-European foods in a way that shows they have discovered and bettered it. Government decision to open tourism takes the sector by surprise Tuesday’s government announcement ending the four-month-long lockdown to, among other things, kickstart the tourism economy has taken tourism entrepre- neurs by surprise. “It all happened rather more swiftly than we had anticipat- News Quiz ed,” said Yogendra Shakya, who owns hotels around the country. 1. A landslide in which district d) Chepang Authorities have enforced an indefinite lockdown in Rajbiraj swept away 19 houses on POST PHOTO: SANJOG MANANDHAR Wednesday? 5. The Metropolitan Traffic A vendor displays hand painted posters of Naag, a serpent deity, for the upcoming Naag following a spike in coronavirus cases. a) Palpa Police Division on Wednesday Panchami festival in Basantapur, Kathmandu. Authorities have enforced an indefinite lockdown in Rajbiraj following a spike b) Lamjung announced that it was resum- in coronavirus cases. 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