The President of the All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association, Northern Punjab, including Islamabad, Abrar Ahmed Khan, expressed serious concerns over the Rawalpindi Board’s results for the 9th grade for the year 2026, demanding an immediate, comprehensive, and impartial review of the board’s examination, marking, and assessment policies. He stated that according to available comparative data, the success rate for the 9th grade at the Rawalpindi Board was only 37.56%, while the overall average for Punjab boards was 45.17%. Thus, the Rawalpindi Board is 7.61% below the provincial average and ranks last among the nine boards included in the comparative review. Abrar Ahmed Khan questioned why students from the Rawalpindi Board face consistently lower success rates compared to other boards each year. He noted that if a single year’s results were low, it could be attributed to chance, but if low results become a continuous trend, it is essential to conduct an impartial review of the examination system, paper setting, marking, and assessment methods rather than solely blaming students and teachers for performance.
He clarified that APSMA does not wish to compromise on educational standards. Allowing students to pass without merit is also unacceptable; however, it is incorrect to view an unusually high failure rate merely as a sign of high educational standards. He stated, “The path to raising educational quality is not through failing more students, but through better teaching, a standard curriculum, effective training, and fair assessment.”
  The President of Northern Punjab demanded that the Chairman of the Rawalpindi Board: conduct an immediate and comprehensive audit of the recent 9th grade results, compare the marking standards of the Rawalpindi Board with other Punjab boards, prepare a subject-wise failure analysis for all subjects, review the paper setting, marking, and syllabus alignment for subjects with unusually high failure rates, enhance the transparency and uniformity of the marking and re-checking system, establish an independent Quality Assurance Mechanism to assess the quality of paper marking, review the examination pattern to align it with the curriculum and desired learning outcomes, form an advisory committee comprising teachers, school owners, educational experts, and other stakeholders, and conduct a comparative analysis of the results over the past five years by board and subject to identify reasons for low success rates. Where necessary, practical and immediate reforms should be made to the examination and assessment policies. Abrar Ahmed Khan stated that Rawalpindi is a major educational center, with thousands of students participating in examinations under the Rawalpindi Board each year. The most important aspect of any examination system is fairness to students and accurate assessment of their true performance. He noted that the impact of a student’s low marks or failure extends beyond their result card, affecting their future educational admissions, parents’ financial expenses, and future educational opportunities. He urged the Chairman of the Rawalpindi Board to view this matter not merely as a result but as an opportunity to improve the entire examination system. Abrar Ahmed Khan emphasized that APSMA is not demanding any concessions or lowering of standards but simply wants that, “Students should receive the marks they deserve; neither less nor more.” He stated that the purpose of examinations is not to fail students but to assess their educational potential in a fair and transparent manner. He expressed hope that the Chairman of the Rawalpindi Board would take immediate notice of this important matter and review the current policy in consultation with educational experts and relevant stakeholders to introduce a modern, balanced, transparent, and fair examination system that would further strengthen the trust of students, parents, and educational institutions in the board.

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