West Bengal HS Board Exam 2025: Only 5.09 lakh to sit for Class 12 exams; 35% less than last year

NEW DELHI: The West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) president, Chiranjib Bhattacharjee, said that over 5 lakh students, most girls, will appear in the West Bengal HS Board exam 2025. However, the number of students appearing for the West Bengal Class 12 HS exam has reduced by 35.56% compared to last year, wherein 7.9 lakh students wrote the exams.

The West Bengal board will conduct the WB HS annual theory examinations from March 3 to March 18. Students will be appearing for Bengali A, English, Hindi and other language subjects.

Last year 7,90,000 candidates wrote their papers for the WB Class 12th exam, but this year 5.09 lakh candidates will appear in the examinations, the PTI quoted the state board president as saying. “Of the total candidates 5.09 lakh candidates to appear in the higher secondary examination, 2.77 lakh are girls,” he said.

The West Bengal board exam for the Class 12 students will be held in 2,089 exam centres. The board has also taken several security measures to prevent unfair practices during exams. The measures include CCTV installation, specific QR codes and bar codes on the question paper-answer sheet to detect any attempt to film and circulate images and track the wrongdoer at the outset.

Students are required to carry the West Bengal HS admit card 2025 to the exam hall to be allowed entry. The examinations will begin at 10 am and conclude at 1:15 pm. Five new subjects like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Science will be among the 62 subjects in this year's higher secondary exams.

In December 2024, the board made minor changes in English B, English A, Alternative English, Bengali A, Hindi A, Hindi B, History, Political Science, Accountancy, Costing and Taxation, Business Studies, Education, Science of Well-being, Statistics, Philosophy, Environmental Studies, Economics, Geography, Biological Science papers.