The state higher secondary council will hold next year’s HS examinations based on the entire syllabus and the candidates will not write the papers at their respective schools, the council president said on Friday.
In 2023, the HS examinations will start on March 14 and end on March 27.
The HS 2022 results were announced on Friday. The pass percentage stood at 88.44 per cent.
A total of 7,20,862 candidates wrote the papers.
The council had announced that it would make “special considerations” while evaluating the answer scripts, if required.
The pass percentage in 2020, when the examinations could not be held in some of the papers following the onset of the Covid pandemic, had stood at 90.13 per cent — the highest ever.
This year, for the first time in the examination’s history, the students wrote their papers at “home centres” — their own schools. The exams were held based on a truncated syllabus because in-person classes could not be held for over two years amid the Covid pandemic.
“Next year, the higher secondary examinations will be held based on the entire syllabus. The examinees will write the exams at centres away from their schools. This year, the exams were held at home centres because we wanted the students to appear for the test after a year’s gap in an environment they were conversant with,” said Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya, president of the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education.
Last year, the exams could not be held because of a renewed surge in Covid cases.
A section of teachers had expressed concern over the state council’s decision that the examinees would write the school-leaving examinations this year under the watch of teachers of their respective schools.
“Since on-campus activities have resumed following a dip in Covid cases, we don’t see any problem in resuming the practice that existed before the pandemic,” said a council official.