The WBBSE, which conducts board examinations for schools, said on Wednesday that this was one of the significant changes being introduced in the grading system for schools. The Madhyamik examination will wit- ness the most important change.

SCHOOL'S EASY
MINIMUM PASS mark will be reduced from 34 per cent to 25 per cent
PASSING IN groups is being done away with. A student now only needs to pass in an individual subject, not the group to which the subjoct belongs
UNIT TESTS for classes V-tX will be cut from 8 to 5 BUT TOTAL marks have been increased from 100 to 120

"Since we are shifting to the sevenpoint grading structure along with marks from next year, students will have to score a minimum 25 marks in each subject to pass. There wn be no grand total as we are also doing away with the concept of passing in groups," said Mamata Ray, the WBBSE president.

In the present system, a student has to score 20 marks in a subject to pass and 34 on average to pass in the group to which the subject belonged.

School Education Minister Partha De also made it clear in the Assembly that the government intends to start the January-December academic session at the earliest.

At the school level, the number of unit tests in Class V-IX will be decreased. In 2007, the board had asked the schools to conduct eight unit tests every year But negative feedback from teachers, guardians as well as students compelled it to bring the cut figure to five. These will be held annually from the next session. The total marks of the tests, however, have been increased to 120 from last year's 100.