In West Bengal, more girls than boys are appearing for this year’s higher secondary exams. A total of 395,079 girls (55.60%) are taking the exams, compared to 315,732 boys (44.40%), with 79,347 more girls appearing than their counterparts.
The West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) will be conducting the examinations from February 12 till 27.
A total of 7.10 lakh students will be appearing for the exams.
“The number of girls appearing for the exams are more than boys in all the districts,” said WBCHSE President Chiranjib Bhattacharya.
The WBCHSE, on the lines of last year, has made CCTV surveillance mandatory at all examination centres for the upcoming higher secondary exams.
Sharing the security details, Bhattacharya said, “CCTV cameras should be installed at the entry gates of all exam centres and inside venue supervisors’ (confidential) rooms. The move aims to maintain the confidentiality of question papers. We introduced CCTV surveillance in 2024 and have decided to continue it to maintain the sanctity of the exams.”
The Council has also directed that all CCTV footage should be stored securely by venue supervisors for one month after the exams. Authorities may inspect the recordings if needed.
Bhattacharya added, “There is zero tolerance for mobile phones or any electronic gadgets in the examination hall for both the examiners and the candidates… if any candidate is found with any form of electronic gadgets, their enrolment and the entire examination will be cancelled this year.”
The examinations of Class 12 will be carried in three forms simultaneously, including Semester IV, Semester III supplementary and the old system.
Semester IV examination will start at 10 am and get over at 12 noon and the vocational subjects and music and visual arts will be from 10 am to 11.15 am.
For Semester III supplementary, the examinations will begin from 1 pm till 2.15 pm and for vocational subjects and music and visual arts the examinations timing is from 1 pm to 1.45 pm.
For the old system, the exam timing is from 10 am to 1.15 pm and the students are expected to reach the examination centres by 9 am.
According to the information shared by the Board, there are a total of 2,103 venues, out of which 822 are main venues and 104 venues have been identified as sensitive by the District Inspector of Schools (Secondary Education) .
According to Bhattacharya, since there would be two semester exams and one exam as per the old system, different colored cloth bags and question papers will be provided to the candidates.
For Semester IV, the cloth bags and question paper will be of white colour, for Semester III supplementary yellow and blue for the old system.
This year a total of around 35,000 invigilators will be required for the examinations.
On a query if the ongoing SIR (Special Intensive Revision) process will lead to the shortage of teachers for invigilation, Bhattacharya said, “…hopefully, there will be no issue with teachers… the state and the district administration have been informed. The district inspector, secondary education, is looking into the matter . If there is any scarcity, then secondary and primary section teachers will be deputed for the invigilation duty.We will ensure that the examinations go smoothly,” said Bhattacharya.
This year, all the centres will have metal detectors placed at the entrance. “The supervisors have been advised to use the metal detector for frisking purposes and to prevent the candidates from carrying any kind of mobile phones or electronics devices inside the examination centre. One metal detector will be provided by the Board and the second one will be purchased by the school. The frisking of the students will be done by the teaching or the non-teaching staff of the school but if there are any unruly students who don’t cooperate with the checking, then the police will step in ,” said Bhattacharya.