Photo Courtesy: Shreeya Panday

HSEB was an autonomous institution that was authorized to manage and govern the education of higher secondary level (+2) throughout Nepal. Recently it was announced that HSEB board has been transformed into NEB (Nepal Education Board) by President Bidya Devi Bhandari with the certification of “The Education Act” (eighth amendment). As per the amendment, the chairperson will be appointed by the cabinet of Public Service Commission with at least one-woman educationist and two members as per the nomination by The Ministry of Education(MOE).

Until the new chairperson is appointed, the education secretary would be working as acting chairperson. The logo in the previous HSEB building has also been changed into the new NEB logo. Also, the employees in the previous office were advised to continue their duties until further notice.

After the transformation, the Vice Chairman Chaitanaya Sharma, who was appointed two years back, was seen off by the new board members. Before leaving, he admitted that additional human resources and physical infrastructures were desperately required for the smooth functioning of NEB in the future.

This transformation means that the existing 36,000 higher secondary boards would run under the jurisdiction of Department of Education. Also, this transformation has officially ended the school leaving certificate (SLC) exam. The examination controller office will now be conducting grade 11 and 12 examinations under NEB. A nation-wide exam will be held at the end of grade 12.

As HSEB will now be managed by the department of education(DOE), respective divisions of previous HSEB will help the department of education by handing over all the official documents. Also, the scholarship exams for grade 11 announced by previous HSEB would be conducted by DOE.

There are high hopes among everyone involved that this change in the education system will ultimately be beneficial for every high school student and that it focuses on their higher education more than giving emphasis on the SLC examination as was the norm for many years before this decision was made.