In a significant academic update, the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) has announced that vocational subjects will now be considered under the 'Best of Five' scoring system for students enrolled in the 2025-26 academic session. Until now, students could study these subjects, but their marks weren’t counted in the ‘Best of Five’.
Additionally, changes have been made to the exam structure and marks division under the new semester system, which began in the 2024-25 academic year. Earlier, vocational subjects were assessed with 70 marks for practicals and 30 for theory. Under the revised system, a total of 100 marks will now be split between two semesters, with 25 marks allotted for theory in each semester and a 50-mark practical in the second semester.
The council currently offers 16 vocational subjects, including IT, Automobile, Retail, Healthcare, Tourism, Beauty & Wellness, and more. With vocational subjects previously excluded from the primary scoring calculation, both students and institutions had started to lose interest in these practical fields. This revised policy aims to restore the importance of vocational education within the higher secondary framework.
This updated structure and inclusion in the ‘Best of Five’ are applicable to students admitted in the 2025-26 session onwards, giving vocational subjects equal academic weight and recognition alongside mainstream options like Science, Arts, and Commerce.