The West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) is conducting a Competitive Guidance Program for the science students of Class XII. There are around 300 competitive level questions on physics, chemistry, maths and biology, which will be discussed in these sessions. All these sessions will be videographed and will be uploaded on the Council YouTube channel. All aspirants of WBJEE 2026 and NEET 2026 can download the question booklet and start solving the questions and check the solutions to these questions from the videos, which will be uploaded on council YouTube channel, a notification at the HS council website mentions.
The council is trying to make students confident when they appear for competitive exams like NEET and JEE.
Prof. Dr Partha Karmakar, who took over as the president of West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education in the initial days of March, says the council serves as the gateway to higher education after Madhyamik. “We organised a webinar on what subjects to choose after Madhyamik. Our notices are put out regularly on the website so that all students in the state can see this and get benefitted. It served as a guide by the council to students what to choose based on their choices. We also told them about career prospects of the subjects they chose and the advice is coming to them from experienced teachers and councillors,” said Dr Karmakar.
The council has a CGP (competitive guidance programme) also for students.
The HS council is also organising a session on Math Olympiad on what to expect and how to prepare for it. The new president of the council, who was Deputy Secretary at West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) is ensuring that the council has programmes for students who plan to sit for Indian Statistical Institute, IISC Bangalore and many other institutions. All this, he says, will be available on YouTube and students can anytime access it.
Dr Karmakar says he has no problem switching on to his new responsibility as he is from higher education, who has served as associate professor of mathematics in government colleges like Bethune College, Bidhannagar College, Jalpaiguri Engineering College and many more. “My experience has been of a different kind. I have served in the Madhyamik board, Primary board, school service commission and also in the higher education department. Now, I want to utilise my experience here in the HS council to make it more accessible to the students. Higher secondary education is my own turf and I know its requirements well,” he said, adding, “This is a challenging job but I will be up to it as I love challenges.”
The new president is also making sure at the council that students are ready to face the MCQ (multiple choice questions) papers, so that they do not feel uncomfortable appearing for competitions which follow the MCQ pattern. “The HS council wants the students to become exam-ready when they sit for competitive exams. Many students get nervous filling OMR sheets at the examination hall. With the new exam system, the students are getting practice filing OMR sheets. There is a lot of confusion over the MCQ format but they must understand that to answer them one has to study the entire book. The concept has to be clear to give the right answer as all options appear correct,” said Dr Karmakar.
Though the core focus of the WBCHSE are students and their welfare, the council also plans orientation programmes for teachers, guiding them on how they should pace the course so that they finish the curriculum within the time allotted to them on the newly introduced subjects. The orientation programme will guide teachers how to progress with the MCQ and descriptive questions.
The HS council has introduced many new subjects like basic mathematics for social science (BMSC) for arts students, and business mathematics and business statistics (BMBS) in keeping with the times.
Since the new subjects are project based, the council is in the process of doing online sessions. “It is difficult to reach such a huge student base physically. The sessions will be for students as well as teachers. All the chapters will be on YouTube. If any teacher is absent from class for some reason, students can access study material through smart classrooms.
The council and its new president are now focussed on publishing the HS results. The new president is trying to iron out some of the issues after the introduction of new subjects and the semester system. “We are also trying to solve the issue highlighted by some of the guardians on shortage of study material on certain newly-introduced subjects. We have Book Mart, from where students can also source books,” added Dr Karmakar.