West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education today brought sea change in the examination system of plus two by introducing the semester system.
There will be four semesters, two in Class XI and the remaining two in Class XII. The Council will conduct the examination in Class XII only while the schools will conduct the examination in Class XI. The marks on Class XII will be taken into account for higher studies only.
In the first semester of Class XII the students will be assessed by multiple choice questions (MCQ) only while in the fourth semester there will be short questions and descriptive questions.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the West Bengal Higher Secondary Council today. More changes in the higher secondary syllabus making it more job-oriented is likely to be done in near future.
The plus-two system was introduced in 1976. Besides English and vernacular, students had to take three subjects. The total marks was 1000 and the examination was held at the completion of the second year. From 1978, the additional subjects were dropped. The system was 10 years in school, then plus two, three years for graduation and two years for post graduation (10+2+3+2).