HS examinees celebrate after getting their results in a city school on Monday. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray

The HS results declared on Monday have underscored once again the need for the state government to create a level playing field for students of all boards by adopting a college admission policy not entirely based on Class XII marks.

The data provided by the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education on the 2012 results indicates that HS continues to be “less scoring” than ISC and CBSE exams conducted by Delhi-based boards.

The success rate in HS has increased from 76.54 per cent last year to 77.88 per cent.

But only 472 candidates out of 738,722 secured the top grade, “AA” (between 90 to 100 per cent marks), in aggregate.

The ISC and CBSE authorities said between 20 per cent and 35 per cent of the students from schools affiliated to the boards had scored above 90 per cent marks in aggregate. There are about 300 ISC and CBSE schools in Calcutta.

A teacher at a reputable English-medium school in south Calcutta affiliated to the HS council said as different boards followed different syllabus and had different question patterns and marking systems, it was not possible to compare students from different boards on the basis of marks alone.

“The HS council has been claiming for years that they are trying to ensure parity in marks with other boards but I think the approach is not right. To ensure a level playing field for students, the state government must change the admission process in colleges,” said the teacher.

According to him, the marks of a student in the Plus Two board exams should be considered only for distribution of admission forms.

“For the final screening, the colleges should conduct admission tests. The performance of students in the entrance should be the only criterion for admitting them,” said the principal of a city college.

Very few institutions offering undergraduate courses, such as Presidency University, admit students only through admission tests.

Some institutions like Jadavpur University and Scottish Church College conduct tests to admit students in some subjects.

“More institutes should be encouraged to shift to admission tests. But reforms in HS is also a must as many students go outside Bengal to pursue graduation and so the marks in the board exams are also important,” said a teacher.

To bring the HS syllabus and examination on par with the other boards, the state government has been introducing reforms since 2006. More modern topics have been introduced in the syllabus and the number of objective and application-based questions has been increased.

Dipak Kar, principal, Asutosh College, felt a centralised subject-wise admission test is better than individual admission tests.

“Otherwise, a student seeking admission in three subjects in three colleges will have to sit for nine entrance examinations. The tests too might coincide with one another,” said Kar.