The Count Down has begun. School Leaving Certificate exams (SLC), so-called “The Iron Gate” has started all over Nepal from March 20 and will be conducted till March 28. A total of 566,085 examinees, 419,352 regular and 146,733 exempted, are appearing in the SLC examination this year. Examinations are being conducted at 1,836 exam centers, out of which Kathmandu alone has 87 centers. And over 53,000 people have been deployed for the examination. Previously, SLC pre sent-up and sent-up exams were conducted as a warm-up throughout the country by school associations like PABSON and N-PABSON. But later on, PABSON/ N-PABSON were accused of flouting the law and intentionally disqualifying/ failing the students. Department of Education clearly stated that no school can bar students from taking the SLC exam or else they are liable to a fine of Rs 25,000 and had to give the written clarifications to the District Education Office (DEO).  From this year, according to the Government (SOCE) regulation, students are allowed directly to appear SLC examination without attending any pre sent-up and sent-up exams. But this has been still the matter of controversy. According to The Office of the Controller of Examinations (OCE), the SLC exam rules have been made tougher this year. However, it remains to be seen if it will be implemented. OCE has brought a new provision to restrict students with double registration from appearing in the (SLC) exams, starting this year. Earlier students with dual registrations were allowed to appear the examination from any of the two places. The practice of studying at Boarding schools and attending exams from Government schools or wherever the monitoring is relatively negligent increased tremendously in the last couple of years. So, in order to control these sorts of unethical practices during exams and to motivate the students to appear in the exams from the schools where they have enrolled, this provision has been introduced.  Next newly implied law is the mandatory provision of having 75 percent of attendance in school as stipulated by the Education Regulations. The District Education Offices (DEOs) are commanded to strictly implement these laws and are given every authority to even cancel the exam. With the arrival of SLC, Private and Boarding Schools Organization Nepal (PABSON) and other organizations requested the government to cut off the load-shedding hours and issued a press statement urging the concerned authorities to help create a favourable environment for the students. The organization has also asked all the concerned sectors not to conduct protests and bandhs during the SLC examinations. Despite all this, the problem of load-shedding has not been addressed properly. According to sources, the Office of the Controller of Examinations (OCE) has taken strict measures to ensure that the exams are held in safe conditions without any chances of immoral acts. All the DEOs are directed to cancel the papers if any foul play is found during the exams. Any teacher or student violating the exam rules fined Rs 100,000 and six months imprisonment. Until now, 115 students have been deprived of appearing in SLC exams due to lack of adequate attendance. Also, students have been expelled from the examination.