Kolkata: Around 5,09,000 candidates are appearing for this year’s Higher Secondary (HS) examination, with the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) setting question papers for 62 subjects. However, official figures show that nine subjects have fewer than 100 candidates, with three seeing single-digit enrolment.
French and Gujarati have only two candidates each, while Data Science has nine. Punjabi follows with ten examinees. Other subjects with fewer than 100 candidates include Artificial Intelligence (30), Odia (49), Telugu (74), Agriculture (83) and Nepali-B (93). In language-based subjects, ‘B’ indicates a second language. This trend is not new. Last year, WBCHSE identified subjects with consistently low demand and decided to discontinue Gujarati, French and Punjabi from the 2024-2025 session. However, after representations from schools, Punjabi was retained. Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, introduced in 2023-2024, have seen lower-than-expected enrolment. Several schools that received permission to offer them could not do so due to a lack of student interest. In response, WBCHSE has announced that from 2025-2026, these subjects will be merged into Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. Schools offering them separately will automatically be permitted to introduce the merged subject next year.
“The low enrolment in AI and Data Science is due to these subjects being new and the lack of study materials. However, with the merger, we expect demand to increase,” said WBCHSE president Chiranjib Bhattacharya. Additionally, 14 subjects have fewer than 1,000 candidates this year, including Santhali (812), Beauty and Wellness (925), Plumbing (755), Power (257), Security (758), Alternative English (812), Bengali-B (351), Hindi-B (232), Music (643), Visual Arts (265), Journalism and Mass Communication (572), Persian (890), Anthropology (754) and Statistics (302).
Most subjects with low enrolment are vocational or language-based. Only around 24,000 students — 4.72 per cent of all HS candidates — have opted for the 13 vocational subjects offered by WBCHSE.
Addressing the decline in language subjects such as Odia, Santhali, Punjabi, Telugu, Alternative English and Nepali, Bhattacharya said: “Most students in the state choose Bengali as their first language and English as their second.
Naturally, languages like Odia and Telugu see fewer candidates. However, we continue offering these subjects to uphold their importance and tradition.”
Bengali remains the most popular first language, with 4,45,300 lakh students taking it this year, while English is the dominant second language, with 5,02,560 candidates.