The demand in the city for ICSE and CBSE schools is on the rise, as is evident in the spurt in the number of schools following their curricula.

To arrest the trend and to encourage parents to enrol their wards with the Bengal board, the government is considering a change in the examination system in both the Madhyamik and the Higher Secondary levels.

Under the proposed system, in vogue in ICSE and CBSE schools for years, only the Class X syllabus will be covered in Madhyamik and that of Class XII in the Higher Secondary exams.

School education minister Kanti Biswas said he would meet secondary and Higher Secondary schoolteachers next month to discuss the matter. ?We have to examine the issue thoroughly before we take a decision,? he said.

Students writing Madhyamik are now required to answer questions on the syllabi of Classes IX and X. Similarly, Higher Secondary examinees answer questions set on the curricula of Classes XI and XII.

Once introduced, the proposed system will lessen the load on the students to a great extent. The move, officials say, is aimed at establishing a parity with the exams conducted by the CBSE and ICSE.

?The number of schools affiliated to the Delhi-based bodies is rapidly increasing across the state. We have to revise our examination system to establish a parity with other national and state-level boards,? said a senior official of the school education department.

Officials said that apart from the attempt at reducing the syllabi, other factors, too, had prompted the government to take the initiative.

?The proposed move will help examinees perform better. In addition, it will enable us to hasten the process of publication of the results,? said Dibyendu Hota, president, West Bengal Board of Secondary Education.

The publication of Higher Secondary results will be expedited, officials stressed.

?There is no option but to match the time of the publication of our results with that of the ICSE and CBSE exam,? said Shibabrata Mukhopadhyay, general secretary of All Bengal Teachers? Association.

?Unless we reform the exam system, our students will never be able to sit for major all-India competitive tests,? he added.