KATHMANDU: Minister for Education, Science and Technology Giriraj Mani Pokharel has made it clear that the schools and colleges will not resume their formal classes for at least two months to come.

Minister for Education Pokharel said that owing to the risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry has decided to go for the alternative ways of teaching-learning for the time being.

He added that the publication of the SEE grade sheet could also take some more time.

“There are some procedures to be followed prior to publication of the result,” he said, “ the National Examination Board will prepare the details of the procedures and they will be sent for implementation.

Justifying the decision of getting the students promoted without the exam, the Minister said that as more than 3000 schools are changed into quarantines and nearly 500 thousand students are waiting for the annual promotion completing their Grade 10 education, it has to be decided that way.

However, he skipped the question if the provision of grade 10 levels SEE would be dismissed forever and merely replied that the provision was the temporary one for the time being.

He, however, added that there would be various complications at the cancellation of the SEE exam itself.

“Nepal Army, Nepal Police, Public Service Commission etc and other fields in the job market place still value the certificate high,” Minister Pokharel said, “dismissal is not as easy as mentioned by the experts.”

According to Minister, the decision of the council of the Minister has reached to Ministry of Law after finding approval from the Ministry of Finance which will ultimately be introduced in the Act. “Once the act is made these issues will be better handled,” Pokharel said.

Minister Pokharel also said that the publication of the SEE result could take some more weeks as it has to go through some more formalities.

He added that the Ministry has not decided anything for Grade 11 though the experts have been suggesting to conduct the exam of grade 12 only.

“As 11^th grader can be promoted to grade 12 under the provision that their exam will be taken later, we still have time for it,” the Minister said.

The Minister added that the resuming classes in the schools and colleges formally may take at least two more months.

“In coordination with the local levels and stakeholders the informal and alternative modes of teaching is already enforced,” the Minister said, “however, formal resuming the classes may take 2 more months.”

He further added that the new sessions would start before Dashain.