West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) declared the higher secondary examination 2023 results this afternoon.

Suvranshu Sardar with 496 (99.2%) from Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya stood first while Susama Khan with 495 (99%) from Bankura Banga Vidyalaya and Abu Sama from Ramkrishnapur Pramode Dasgupta Memorial High School both shared the second spot.

The third spot was shared by four students. In the differently-abled category, Mirjan Sk stood first with 477 marks (95.4%) from Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya.

There were 87 rank holders this year in comparison to last year’s 212 students. This year the pass percentage was 89.25 with 7,37,807 students being successful out of 8,24,891 who appeared for the examination.

Of the total successful candidates, 87.26 per cent are girls and 91.86 per cent are boys.

The exam dates have been advanced for the year 2024 and it will start 16 February onwards and end on 29 February.

Out of 23 districts, 11 of them had a pass percentage of above 90, East Midnapore ranking highest with 95.77 per cent. Kolkata stood a distant 10th with a 90.36 per cent pass percentage.

In the list of top 10, Hooghly has the maximum number of students — 18, next being South 24-Parganas with 12 students and Kolkata, with three students.

This year, the questions were set in four languages: English, Hindi, Bangla, and Alchiki. There were 60 subjects this year and the results were published in 57 days. The council president considered this a unique achievement.

There were 13 vocational subjects. The council had also prepared ‘concepts with sample questions with solutions and model questions with answers. Also, mock tests were prepared for the better performance of the students. President of WBCHSE, Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said that the council will stop setting papers and conducting exams for Class XI.

“Conducting exams for Class XI from next year will be done by the respective schools, instead of the council,” he said. Explaining the change, the council’s president said, “Earlier, it was not the trend for the council to set papers but in between it was started. We are discontinuing it and reverting to the earlier system. We are trying to bring parity with CBSE and ISC, which only set papers for Class XII.” Another interesting aspect, which the chairman pointed out was the interesting mix of subjects chosen by the students. Citing the example of the first boy, he pointed out that Suvranshu Sardar had Bangla, English, economics, Math, and Commerce, while Abu Sama, who stood second had Bangla English, Geography, Math, and Philosophy.

About 7,900 students scored more than 90 per cent marks and 52, 876 students got 80 per cent marks and above. Congratulating the students, the education minister Bratya Basu tweeted: “….my heartiest congratulations and good wishes to the successful candidates. You get every success in life, be a good human being, make the state and Bengalis proud (sic).”

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted: “My congratulations and heartiest good wishes to all the successful candidates. Let your future days be full of success.”