Examinations have long measured learning, discipline and personal growth. At their best, examinations capture the hard work, perseverance and intellectual development expected at different stages of education.
Thus, societies that value learning and build robust assessment systems tend to progress. In contrast, those that fail to build such systems often struggle to produce meaningful educational outcomes.
In many developing economies, including Pakistan, however, examinations have increasingly become instruments for testing memory rather than understanding. Broader societal tendencies, including weak institutional mechanisms, the pursuit of individual gain and a willingness to resort to shortcuts, find expression within school walls. Consequently, student assessment often reinforces superficial learning rather than nurturing deeper intellectual and moral development.
Students, and in many ways parents and the entire school machinery, conditioned by this environment, chase marks for academic advancement rather than pursuing the learning outcomes essential for their future.
Against this backdrop, a significant step was taken this year to reform the conduct of examinations, including the reshuffling of examination centres at the higher secondary level. The intention was to curb systemic malpractice and restore integrity and fairness to the assessment process, encouraging a shift from rote-driven performance to authentic learning.
Therefore, this year, the Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) examinations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were marked by this procedural change, with significant implications. Candidates were examined at centres other than their own, and invigilation was also strengthened to prevent unfair means. In Peshawar Board, HSSC-I (Class 11) registered a 44.2 per cent pass rate, i.e. 29,487 out of 66,695 candidates qualified the Part I examinations. In contrast, the pass rate for HSSC-II (Class 12) was 72.0 per cent – 44,902 of the total 62,322 candidates qualified the Part II examinations.
When KP authorities ordered stricter anti-cheating measures in March, they also directed that examination centres be reshuffled. Following protests by parents and subsequent litigation, the courts upheld the decision to move many privately run centres to government schools. The boards maintained that the move was not intended to disrupt the examination process but to ensure more uniform conditions across centres.
The data from BISE Peshawar offers a stark picture. A total of 66,695 students appeared in the HSSC-I examination in 2025, but only 29,487 passed, having a pass percentage of 44 per cent. The gender-wise breakdown further highlights the disparity. Of the 39,733 boys who appeared as regular candidates, only 12,633 passed (31.8 per cent pass rate; 68.3 per cent failure). In contrast, 22,663 girls appeared as regular candidates, with 14,722 successful, yielding a significantly higher pass rate of 65 per cent.
The BISE Peshawar had declared significantly higher pass rates a year ago. In 2024, the HSSC-I pass percentage was 79.83 per cent (50207/62886), and the HSSC-II pass percentage was around 92 per cent (56117/61217). The 2025 results therefore represent a dramatic decline from the previous year. But this need not be interpreted simply as a collapse in student learning. It may instead represent a reset in measurement, as students were assessed under stricter and more uniform conditions.
With the shift towards SLOs across all school levels, Pakistan’s education system needs to gradually move towards assessments that emphasise conceptual understanding rather than rote recall. As it transitions, examination policies must also evolve to reinforce meaningful learning.
A step towards this would be to introduce SLO-based examinations at Grade V and Grade VIII under the respective Boards. Conducting examinations that assess student learning outcomes at these foundational levels would not only benchmark learning more accurately but also support the development of well-rounded learners with stronger analytical and conceptual depth.
So what can schools and boards do now? Boards (BISEs) can post subject-wise specification tables and a set of sample items with model marking, along with an appropriate explanation of the grading/marking system. Boards should continue pre-standardisation and post-mark reviews to ensure all centres make the same decisions.
At the beginning of the term, schools and colleges should hold a short SLO-planning workshop for teachers, assign one performance task per SLO cluster with a four-level rubric, and cross-mark small samples of scripts to ensure consistency and accuracy. They should also ensure that Grade XI mentoring is focused on helping students meet the board’s cognitive demands before they sit high-stakes examinations.
Measuring student competencies and academic performance requires appropriate assessment tools, which should also form the basis of assessments and examinations. A reasonable view of the academic future is that the 2025 results in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa may provide a better picture of actual student performance, given the tougher oversight and changes in examination centres.
The alignment of academic integrity measures with targeted support can be improved, particularly in Grade XI, to turn this baseline into better results in the following years.
This research has been conducted under a DARE-RC consortium study led by Dr Aliya Khalid. The DARE-RC project is funded through UK International Development from the UK government. Oxford Policy Management implements the project in partnership with its consortium partners.
Dr Syed Munir Ahmad is an associate professor at the Institute of Education and Research, University of Peshawar.
Dr Aliya Khalid is a senior departmental lecturer of comparative and international education at the University of Oxford.
Dr Hameedah Sayani is a senior faculty member at the Government Elementary College of Education (Durbeen), Karachi.
