West Bengal Education: Is Conducting Exams Twice a Year Even Possible? What Does the Board Say?

West Bengal Education: The country’s education system is transforming with the advent of the New Education Policy. It has been proposed to conduct board exams twice a year instead of once. The CBSE board has already moved forward with implementing this rule. But will the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education follow the same path? Is there any plan to conduct exams twice a year for the benefit of students? This is now a topic of intense speculation in the educational community.

What is the Core Issue?

According to the recommendations of the National Education Policy, from the 2025-26 academic year, students of Class 10 and 12 under the CBSE board will get the opportunity to appear for exams twice a year. The main objective is to reduce the pressure of exams on students and give them another chance to improve their results. If a student is not satisfied with their result in the first exam, they will have the opportunity to improve their score by appearing for the second time. The better of the two scores will be considered final.

What is the West Bengal Board Thinking?

On this matter, the President of the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education, Chiranjib Bhattacharya, has stated that there are currently no plans to conduct exams twice a year in the state. According to him, organizing exams twice a year for the vast number of students in West Bengal is a massive undertaking. It involves processes like new enrollment, form submission, and selection of examination centers, which is practically equivalent to organizing another Madhyamik or Higher Secondary examination.

He also mentioned that the semester system has already been introduced in the Higher Secondary level, which will help in reducing the pressure on students. Therefore, the existing system of conducting exams once a year will continue.

Why Is It Not Possible to Conduct Exams Twice a Year?

• Huge Number of Examinees: The number of students under the West Bengal board is very large. It is difficult to conduct exams smoothly for so many students twice a year.
• Administrative Complexity: Conducting exams twice a year would require significant administrative changes. The infrastructure needed for creating new question papers, evaluating answer sheets, and publishing results is not currently in place.
• Impact on the Academic Year: If exams are held twice a year, it will require major changes to the entire academic calendar, which could affect the students’ preparation.

Overall, while the idea of twice-a-year exams is appealing for students, the board believes that it is not feasible to implement it in West Bengal at the moment due to infrastructural and administrative reasons. Therefore, it is almost certain that the examinations will continue to be held in the traditional manner in the future.