The School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination, which is considered as iron gate of school education, has started from today.

368,678 students 292,287 in regular and 76,391 in exempted groups are attending the exams.

This year, questions for all the 55 subjects will be based on only the grade 10 syllabi. In the past, they faced questions from syllabus of grade 9 and 10.

More examination centres have been added this year taking the total to 1,186. The Office of the Controller of Examinations (OCE) has fixed 365 centres in the central region, 307 in the eastern region, 277 in the western region, 144 in the mid-western region and 93 in the far-western region.

According to the OCE, 33,225 personnel have been mobilised for the examination with 11,860 security personnel, 3,000 evaluators and monitors, 15,467 inspectors, 2,371 assistant superintendents and 1,186 superintendents.

A maximum number of students appearing in the exams this year are from Kathmandu, where 27,622 students are sitting for the exams in 60 centres. Mustang has the least number of students with 94 of them appearing in one centre.

Eight parties and their sister organisations have vowed not to hold any programme to disrupt the examinations.

Various organizations have appealed to all concerned to help conduct the SLC examinations in a peaceful manner.