Kathmandu Metropolitan City Facilitates Special Arrangements for Students with Disabilities in Basic Level Exams

Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has stated that it has provided special facilitation for examinees with conditions such as autism, intellectual disability, and Down syndrome to participate in the exams.

Acting Chief of KMC, Sunita Dangol, informed that KMC provided the convenience of taking the Basic Level Completion Examination at their home centers for students with special needs, including autism, intellectual disability, and Down syndrome.

Acting Chief Dangol also mentioned that the Metropolitan City is planning to operate educational institutions of this nature because special educational environments are required for students with special needs.

In accordance with Rule 47 of the Education Regulations, 2059, arrangements have been made for visually impaired, deaf, hard of hearing, and psychosocially disabled students to take the exam in sign language they understand. If such students cannot complete the exam within the stipulated time, the center chief or the concerned school can provide an additional time of up to one hour and 30 minutes.

If students with developmental disabilities or special needs cannot take the exam using the question papers prepared by the Metropolitan City, the school must prepare appropriate evaluation criteria based on the student's learning nature, evaluate the student, and submit the marks to the concerned resource center.

For the Basic Level Examination that started on Chaitra 5, 57 centers are currently operational. Among these centers, 47 are in community schools and 10 are in institutional schools. A total of 19,117 students from 494 schools are participating in these centers, comprising 10,745 male students and 8,372 female students. Based on the nature of the schools, 4,614 students from 77 community schools (including two in prisons and one special school), 837 from 20 alternative schools, 70 from six religious schools, and 13,596 from 391 institutional schools are participating in the examination.

The examination center has been established at the Central School for the Deaf, Narayanchal, itself, keeping in mind the specific needs of the students studying there, as they are students with special needs (deaf). KMC stated that the examination centers at Jagannath Deval Secondary School and Bandi Bikash Basic School, which operate inside prisons (jails), have been kept at those respective schools due to security sensitivity making it difficult for students to leave.