HS EXAMS MADE EASY FOR BENGALI STUDENTS 

Calcutta, Feb. 19 :    Calcutta, Feb. 19:  The West Bengal Higher Secondary Education Council wants to make things easy for examinees. On Tuesday it released its first edition of a new journal in Bengali containing ideal answers to questions of the ensuing Higher Secondary examinations. The answers will also include detailed opinions of expert examiners and their suggestions on how to tackle difficult questions. The Council's move is aimed at helping nearly four lakh HS examinees who will appear in the examinations scheduled to begin on March 20. A large number of examinees from English and Hindi medium schools are aggrieved as they said they will not be able to make use of the facility available only in Bengali. Nearly 10 per cent of the total examinees who appear in the HS examinations every year belong to schools other than Bengali medium. "A bulk of the examinees who score high marks in the HS are from the well-known English medium schools in Calcutta. We are surprised that the Council does not want to help them," said Sourav Pal, an examinee from South Point. Students of other English medium HS institutions like Loreto, Gokhale and Shree Shikshayatan demanded that an English version of the journal be published. The journal will be available at the four regional centres of the Council from Friday. Teachers of English medium schools said they had approached the Council and demanded an English version of the journal. Jyotirmoy Mukhopadhay, president, West Bengal Higher Secondary Education Council, said: "We are considering the proposal to publish the English version of the journal. But we are sorry that we will not be able to provide the facility for the English and Hindi medium students from this year." However, he said the Council has made a temporary arrangement to shortly release copies of the English version of the answers to questions in two subjects - history and chemistry, which, he felt, will be of help to the nearly 40,000 examinees from the English and Hindi medium schools.