HS: ‘Equal weightage for all semesters...’ will be effective from 2025-26

The semester system will come into effect from 2024-25 for the students of class XI, while for class XII it will be effective from 2025-26.

SOUMITRA NANDI, MP, 30 Mar 2024, Kolkata: The West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) will give equal weightage to all four semesters and students will have to score minimum qualifying marks in each of them to be eligible for the next one. 

The semester system will come into effect from 2024-25 for the students of class XI, while for class XII it will be effective from 2025-26. “Our primary objective is to ensure that there should be no quality dilution in connection with the evaluation of students in the semester system. 

The WBCHSE has been the first among all states to implement a semester system at the school level. Students will have to secure a minimum qualifying mark in each of the semesters. 

They will qualify for the next semester only when they clear the previous one," Priyadarshini Mallick, Secretary of WBCHSE said. 

Abhishek to BJP The Council is working on the evaluation pattern for the semesters and will soon notify it. 

Initially, the Council had decided that there would be no minimum pass marks for the first and third semesters and the cumulative marks of both semesters will determine the pass-fail criteria. However, some teachers’ organisations wrote to the Council for reconsidering its decision claiming that the move will bring down the standard of education in the higher secondary level. 

The Council has consulted experts and decided to give equal weightage in all the semesters. WBCHSE has already announced that there will be four semesters two in class XI and two in class XII. 

The odd (I and III) semesters will be completely MCQ (multiple choice question) type where students will have to answer in OMR sheets. 

The even (II and IV) semesters will contain short answer type and descriptive questions. The odd semester examination will be conducted in November while the even semester will be held in March. One and a half hours for each subject will be allotted during examination for the first three semesters while for the 4th or final semester, the time duration will be of 2 hours. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/hs-equal-weightage-for-all-semesters-557964?infinitescroll=1