West Bengal Higher Secondary results give us a fighting chance: Other board students

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education’s decision not to award a deluge of high scores to its Class XII boards candidates offered hopes for an even playing field for students from all boards and councils, when it came to undergraduate admissions. Unlike Madhyamik, a limited number of Higher Secondary students has scored above 90%, leading principals of several colleges to point out that now, CBSE and CISCE Class XII scores would determine how the college admission scene played out.
CISCE and CBSE marks are likely to be better than last year but if the two boards awarded too high marks, the principals apprehend, there will be a rerun of 2020 admissions.
“The results of board examinations are very relative in these situations. A lot will now depend on how CBSE and CISCE award marks. If they give high marks, then those from HS might find it a little tough. Otherwise, it will be a level playing field,” said Siuli Sarkar, principal of Lady Brabourne College. Soumyadipto Pal, an ISC candidate, said, “I am a medical aspirant. But as fewer HS candidates have scored above 90%, and even above 80%, this year, I plan to apply in some of the premier colleges for general degree programmes as well.” He added that considering the new formula devised by the CISCE, he expected better score this year than those who took the boards in 2020.

Last year, many students made it to the merit lists of multiple subjects by dint of the high marks they scored from the formulae devised for cancelled papers due to the pandemic, but did not ultimately take up those seats as they did not have a knack for those subjects. As a result, the deserving ones and those genuinely interested candidates had to wait for a long time before their turn came for their chosen subjects in their preferred colleges or had to settle for institutes they were not keen on.
A principal at a government college pointed out that last year, so many Class XII pass-outs had scored above 90% that they had made it to the cut-offs of almost all subjects and also, applied to multiple ones, but subsequently, never took admission in those fields. “This kept the seats vacant and colleges had to reopen admission portals several times to invite more applications. This year, the HS results at least indicate that such a situation can hopefully be averted,” said the principal.
Many colleges have been preparing in advance so that a long-drawn admission process, like that in 2020, can be averted. “We have devised a formula, which will take marks in various subjects into consideration to compute qualifying marks. The merit list will be drawn up on that basis,” Madhumanjari Mandal, principal at Scottish Church College.
Many colleges waited for HS results before coming up with a detailed admission notice. Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira in Belur has uploaded a notice on its website with details of how to apply and listing out important dates.“Interested students can visit our website to get all details. Various departments have determined the admission criteria,” said Swami Ekachittananda, principal of the college.
The HS results saw the pass percentage rise to 97.5 from 86 in 2020. But only 9,013 candidates were placed in the 90%-100% zone. In the 2020 HS exams, the number of examinees scoring above 90% had witnessed a nearly four-fold jump, with as many as 30,220 scoring this high. The huge rise in students scoring above 90% last year had made it difficult for ISC and CBSE students to get college admissions.
A CBSE school principal pointed out that the rational marking by the HS Council would allow students from CBSE to compete with state board students, unlike last year, when some of the candidates, despite bagging 92% in CBSE Class XII, found seats in second-grade colleges.