A total of 372,000 candidates throughout the country will sit for the upcoming School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examinations this year in Nepal, a senior Nepali government official said.

"About 90 percent of the works in preparation has been completed for the SLC examination to be held from April 2," Radha Krishna Mainali, Nepali minister for education and sports, said in an interaction function.

Altogether 994 examination centers will be established for the SLC exam, Mainali noted, adding, "A total of 40,304 employees and 14,910 security personnel would be mobilized for conducting the SLC examinations."

Taking the SLC examinations as the academic festival, all sectors including the political parties and the civic society should extend cooperation in conducting the examination in a smooth manner and prevent it from becoming victimized by politics, he added.

The on-going conflict has been hardly affecting the education sector of Nepal and the schools should be declared the peace zone, guardians said at the function.

"The schools should be declared the peace zone, freed from political influence and activities causing mental tension among the students at the time of examinations should be prevented," Suprabhat Bhandari, president of the Guardians Association Nepal, a non-government organization, said at the function.

Source: Xinhua