Higher Secondary examinees will for the first time be allowed to check their answer scripts after publication of results if they are not satisfied with the marks awarded to them.

The students can visit the office of the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education and check the scripts there, a council official said. They will also be allowed to take photocopies of the answer scripts if they wish.

Until last year, aggrieved Higher Secondary (HS) students would have to file an application under RTI (right to information) act or appeal in court for permission to see the answer scripts after publication of results. It would be a long-drawn process, said education department officials.

An online window will be opened on the council website on July 5 for students to apply for “self-inspection”. All candidates who have appeared in the HS exams this year will be eligible to apply.

Once the online applications are submitted, the council will fix a date for each applicant to visit the office and see the papers. After “self-inspection”, the students can apply for collecting photocopies of their papers.

Applications for “self-inspection” of answer scripts will be accepted till six months after the publication of results.

Students could earlier get their answer scripts scrutinised or reviewed. In scrutiny, the council would check whether all the questions had been examined and marked and if there had been a mistake in adding the marks awarded to them in each question. In case of a review, the entire paper would be re-examined. But there was no provision to allow students to see their papers.

“The West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education has decided to introduce self-inspection of answer scripts to make the examination system more transparent,” council president Mahua Das said.

The council had been noticing that more and more students wanted to see their scripts after the publication of results, an official said.

The move to introduce the system of “self-inspection” of answer scripts is also aimed at reducing the number of RTI and court cases, the official said. “Students who perform poorly are more inclined to see the answer scripts themselves to check whether their papers have been examined correctly. But there have been instances of students scoring in the 90s and still wanting to see their papers,” the official said.

“The council believes there should not be any confusion among students about the marks. So we decided to open the facility for self-inspection of answer scripts to all students,” a source said.

The students will be allowed to check the scripts in all six papers, including two languages, three elective and one additional subject.