The state higher secondary council has decided to allow reviews in all HS papers this year after protests by hundreds of unsuccessful candidates across the state.
The council had allowed reviews in all subjects in 2020, too, when the pass percentage stood at 90.13.
Till 2019, the council used to allow reviews in two theory papers only.
Last year, the exams could not be conducted because of Covid.
This year, 88.44 per cent of the candidates passed the exams, the results of which were declared on Friday.
Since then, there have been protests in many places, including in front of the state education department headquarters in Salt Lake.
Council president Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya on Wednesday said the council expected that reviews in all subjects would help address the grievances of the candidates unhappy with their marks.
“Let the candidates who are dissatisfied with their results review the papers they wrote. It’s not that the ongoing protests by the unsuccessful candidates forced us to allow review in all the papers. When we had decided that the exams would be held at home centres, we did not act under any pressure. There was no pressure on this issue, too,” said Bhattacharya.
This year, for the first time in the exam’s history, students wrote their papers at their respective schools — “home centres” — so they could write the tests amid the pandemic in an environment they were familiar with.
“Online PPS/PPR (post public scrutiny/post public review) will be accepted on and from 20.06.22 midnight to 05.07.22 midnight through the website of this council www.wbchse.nic.in…. Candidates are advised to apply for RTI only after the publication of results of PPS/PPR, if they feel so,” said a notice signed by council secretary-in-charge Tapas Mukherjee.
Bhattacharya said this year, 47,000-odd students had scored more than 90 per cent in aggregate, out of 7,20,862 candidates who wrote the HS papers.
He said: “78.5 per cent candidates have scored more than 60 per cent in aggregate. These figures mark a record.”
The council had announced in April that it would make “special considerations” while evaluating the answer scripts, if required.
Almost 100 per cent candidates had crossed the higher secondary barrier last year, following a review of the marks of the 18,000 students who had initially been declared unsuccessful.
“It remains to be seen whether this year’s review leads to a substantial surge in the pass percentage like last year,” said Saugata Basu, general secretary of the Government School Teachers’ Association.