A FEW days ago all the Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa circulated a letter to heads of all government and private educational institutions about the strategy and policy for the upcoming examination system in the province.

It noticed that question papers for grades IX, X, XI and XII would not be prepared from the exercises given at the end of each unit of the textbooks but from the curricular topics of learning materials. The purpose of this change, according to the board authorities, is to discourage cramming and rote learning. Hence there will be no Guides, notes and model papers available in the market. It now seems the board management has decided to change its mindset by introducing changes to the examination system.

Because of changes in question papers the conceptual study would take roots in students. This would increase their learning capacity The hidden capabilities of students would be enlightened and help in the linguistic understanding of physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, English and other course books.

The students must focus their ears and eyes on picking up the meaning of learning materials. If teachers and parents cooperate in such a way, the future of our coming generation would be luminous.

Although the government is taking these initiatives a little late when the academic session in all educational institutions is about to close, to prepare students now for such a change in question papers would be rather difficult for institutions and teachers.

However, as a part of the education system, the provincial government and all educational boards should implement the Students’ Learning Outcomes (SLOs) policy on reforming the examination system from 2019.

Muhammad Rahim Haqqani,
Former secretary,
KP Education Commission
Sarai Payeen

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2017