By Sardar Khan Niazi

In a sweeping overhaul of its academic evaluation machinery, the Punjab government has decided to reshape its examination boards and assessment mechanisms, with the aim of enhancing transparency, accountability and learning outcomes across schools in the province. At the heart of the reform is the reintroduction of board examinations for Grade 8, a move that reverses a five‑year hiatus in external standardized evaluation for middle school students. A key meeting of the Board of Governors of the newly constituted Punjab Assessment and Examination Commission (PACTA), presided over by the Punjab Education Minister, Rana Sikandar Hayat took the decision. The Grade 8 board exams will be conducted under the oversight of PACTA. Meanwhile, students in Grades 5, 6 and 7 will undergo structured internal assessment tests rather than formal external exams. The government has directed education authorities to devise a robust internal evaluation framework within the next 30 days. Mounting concerns over the reliability and uniformity of school-level evaluations are the rationale behind the reforms. Without standardized checks, disparities in grading, internal assessments, and teaching quality have gone unchecked. The revival of an external exam in Grade 8 is seen as a lever to synchronize expectations across schools and provide diagnostic feedback for intervening in lagging learning outcomes. The shift to internal assessments for Grades 5 to 7 is meant to reduce exam pressure at a young age, allowing teachers and school authorities to gauge learning gaps more responsively. A few months earlier, a Chief Minister’s Task Force on Examinations was established to review and recommend reforms in the examination process across Punjab — including oversight of PEC and the Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISEs). The task force’s mandate includes benchmarking Punjab’s system against other provincial and international models like the Aga Khan Board and the Cambridge system.  Under the new scheme, Grade 8 students will again sit external board exams, evaluated centrally under PACTA. Grades 5–7 will be evaluated through structured, internal assessments designed by PACTA or related authorities. The government aims to instill greater standardization in question setting, invigilation and scoring. The internal assessment framework, once ready, will also serve to monitor both student learning gaps and teacher performance. Other modernization measures discussed include converting textbooks (especially for matric and Grade 11) into video‑based formats to support visual learners. Textbook printing, distribution and verification processes have been flagged for improvement to ensure timely availability at the start of the academic session. Nonetheless, stakeholders warn that implementation will be the real test. Some of the challenges include ensuring uniform capacity across rural and urban schools to conduct reliable internal assessments. Training teachers and examiners in the new formats and standards. Preventing irregularities, favoritism or lax internal grading. Ensuring the new assessment model does not inadvertently pressure teachers or students in earlier grades. Balancing accountability with flexibility so that schools with weaker resources are not unfairly penalized. Many believe it could strengthen early detection of learning deficits and standardize benchmarks across the province. One observer noted that the lack of external checks in the middle years had created grade inflation and unfair variance. In the meantime, PACTA and the Education Department have been tasked to draw up the detailed blueprint for internal assessments, question banks, standard operating procedures and roll-out logistics. The timeline to deliver this blueprint is short — within about a month. As the new academic year approaches, all eyes will be on how quickly schools, administrators and stakeholders adapt to the revamped examination environment. If executed effectively, Punjab’s bold reshaping of its assessment system could set a benchmark for other provinces in Pakistan — and reshape how students are evaluated from an early age.