Calcutta, Feb. 13: Finding a berth in a stream and school of choice may be even more difficult for admission seekers to Class XI this year.

The number of Madhyamik examinees is going up by around 71,000.

Over 7.46 lakh students will take the secondary examinations slated to begin on Friday. Around 6.74 lakh students had appeared in Madhyamik 2007.

In Calcutta, the number is going up by 26,147, which means a greater scramble for seats in the most sought-after institutions of the city. As many as 3,21,298 students will write the exams in Calcutta.

The president of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, Mamata Roy, said one of the main reasons for the rise in number of candidates was the upgrade of a few hundred schools across the state to the Class X level. “Many schools that taught up to Class VIII have been upgraded over the past six years,” said Roy.

She also felt that efforts to bring more students to school through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan had borne fruit.

In 2007, however, there was a drop of around 80,000 examinees compared with 2006.

The secretary of the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education confirmed the possibility of a seat crisis in reputable schools. “There are over 4,000 HS schools and there shouldn’t be a crisis under normal circumstances. But those who do well in Madhyamik seek admission to a handful of higher secondary schools in Calcutta and the district towns,” said Debashis Sarkar.

Madhyamik examinees will be given 15 minutes extra this year to read their question papers. The examination will start at 11.45am. But students will start writing from 12.