Board relief: A file picture of an exam hall

Calcutta, July 27: The West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education today unveiled details of its plan to split the higher secondary examinations and pinned the responsibility of holding the Class XI tests on schools.

?We will start implementing the new system from 2007 onwards. Students who have taken admission to Class XI in the current academic session and will be appearing in the HS exam in 2007 will be the first batch of examinees to write the HS exam under the new system,? said council president Gopa Dutta.

On July 20, the state government ? after a discussion with teachers? organisations ? had decided to replace the existing system of holding the examinations on the basis of a combined syllabi of Class XI and XII.

Following a government directive, the council today held a meeting to finalise the role of HS schools under the new system.

But the question papers for the Class XI examinations will be set by the council, she said. ?Every school will have to conduct the examinations using our question papers. This system will enable us to maintain a uniformity in the question pattern.? The schools will have to send the Class XI marks to the council. ?This decision is also aimed at maintaining transparency in the examinations,? Dutta said.

Under the old system, the higher secondary examinations are held on a total of 1,200 marks. Students now will appear for 600-mark tests each year. In addition, the examination on the newly-introduced environmental science paper will be held in Class XII and will carry 100 marks. A pass mark in this subject will be mandatory.

This means that students in reality will have to appear for 700 marks in the HS exams but the environmental science marks will not be included in the aggregate, officials said.

Students will be writing seven papers ? including five compulsory subjects, one additional subject and environmental science.