Calcutta, June 20: The package of subjects being offered in the higher secondary course this year has gone through a student-friendly makeover.

Under the revised system, the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education has dropped four subjects ? zoology, botany, physiology and public administration.

Secretary Debashis Sarkar said: “Examining students’ demands, we found that there was no need to teach these subjects separately as electives at the Plus II level.”

The revised package will be put into effect from the session beginning in July. Successful examinees of the 2005 secondary examinations, who are now seeking admission to Class XI in 6,000-odd state-aided higher secondary schools, will be able to choose subjects from the new assortment.

The new course is divided into nine groups that comprise 55 subjects from all three streams ? science arts and commerce (see box). Students will have to choose three elective and one optional subject from any of the nine groups.

Since the HS council was set up in 1975, this is the second time the subject combination package has been revised. In 2004, minor changes had been introduced.

“The alterations we made last year were not sufficient to meet the requirements of modern students. Moreover, there were certain gross lapses in the old system that needed immediate change,” an official said.

Explaining the disadvantages in the old system, he said earlier there was no scope for humanities students to pick an elective subject that could help them score high marks. This aspect has been kept in mind while framing the new package.

The official added that in the old system, there were three categories of laboratory-based subjects in which the total marks for practical varied between 40 and 110. Earlier, the subjects in each group were such that a student could choose two lab-based subjects having 110 marks for practical in each.

The new package has been designed in such a way that a student will be able to opt for only one such subject ? which has 110 marks on the practical examination.