Kolkata: The West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) is soon going to come out with the study material for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Science on its website to help prospective students as well as act as a guideline for publishers, Council president Chiranjib Bhattacharjee stated.
Out of 300 schools that applied for the two subjects to be introduced from 2023-34 academic session, the Council has given permission to 118 schools from Kolkata and neighbouring districts, Bhattacharjee had informed earlier.
However, various schools in the city have raised concerns over the unavailability of books and resource materials for the newly-introduced subjects.
According to the headmaster of a city school, they had eight to ten students opting for the two new subjects but these students had to be transferred to Computer Science and Computer Application because of the unavailability of resource materials. The headmaster also stated that the teachers from the school are yet to receive training.
According to a source in the Council, there is a problem with availability of the published study material. The reason according to them is that a lot of publications were sceptical of the number of schools that will be able to afford the two courses as well as the number of students who will opt for it.
They had taken a ‘wait and watch’ approach to the publications which may have led to the situation wherein the course has been officially implemented from 2023-24 academic year but the resource materials still remain unavailable.
“This situation will be rectified and the Council is positive that by 2024, there will be enough study material available. The Council also hopes that by 2024 more schools will apply for the two courses and many of them will be getting permission,” a source said.
The Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department of Jadavpur University has been entrusted with the task of training school teachers, preparing them for the introduction of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science in classes XI and XII of schools affiliated to the Council.
Furthermore, the coursework and question paper pattern has also been decided by experts. The question paper will be of 100 marks for both these subjects and carry 70 marks for theory and 30 for practical.
During his address to the teachers, Kamal Sarkar said that making the syllabus of these two subjects for the two classes was a tedious process considering overlapping topics. The syllabus, according to Sarkar, has been constructed with basic concepts of AI and its use so that students are able to understand the topics better.
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