Mita Mukherjee

The chief secretary of West Bengal on Saturday summoned the head of the state higher secondary council and asked her to review students’ complaints about receiving lower marks in this year’s Class XII board exam compared to what they had expected.

Thousands of unsuccessful Higher Secondary candidates protested at several places in Kolkata including in front of the residence of state education minister Bratya Basu and in various schools in the districts throughout the day on Saturday with a demand to declare them successful in the Higher Secondary exam.

K. Diwvedi, state chief secretary, discussed the allegations brought by the students with Mahua Das, president, West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education today and directed her to examine the complaints and submit a report to the government, sources in the state administrative headquarters said.

Later, the council president issued a notification where she promised that the grievances of the students will be looked into. She said in the notification a  meeting had been held between council officials and heads of several Higher Secondary schools. The heads were asked to find out whether the students’ allegations were true.

Several agitating students alleged they have failed because of errors in the calculation. The marks that have been awarded to them were far less than what they have actually scored, they claimed.

The Class XII board exam could not be held this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The council prepared the results by giving 40 per cent weightage to a student’s performance in the Class X board exams and 60 per cent to the performance in the Class XI annual exams. The final score was arrived at by adding the two scores to the marks obtained in the practical or project work marks.       

The council had published the results of the 2021 Higher Secondary (Class XII) exam last Thursday.

The council had announced that 97.69 per cent out of 819,202 students who enrolled for the test this time had passed. According to sources in the council, around 20,000 students have failed in the exam this year.

Large numbers of unsuccessful candidates along with their guardians ransacked school campuses, blocked roads and showed protests inside the offices of school heads since Thursday evening after the publication of the results at various schools in Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, West Midnapore, Nadia, Jalpaiguri,Hooghly and Birbhum districts with the demand to announce them qualified in the exam.

Also Read: Bengal: Class 12 board result declared, 97. 69 % pass