TAXILA: The poor results of ninth class (secondary school certificate Part-1) examination in the Jand town of Attock announced by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Rawalpindi have exposed the declining education standard with eight schools recording a zero per cent pass rate and the highest achieving school managing only 47.1 per cent.

According to official data, 1,572 students from 30 government schools appeared in the board examination, out of which 1,228 failed, reflecting an overall failure rate of nearly 78 per cent.

Government High School Mera Sharif topped the list of underperforming institutions, where all the 45 students failed to secure a passing grade. Government High School Kot Chhaper fared no better, with all 30 candidates failing. At Government High School Kundratu, none of the 26 students managed to pass while Government High School Kani also recorded a complete failure among its 20 candidates.

Similarly, Government High School Kali Kati saw all 19 of its students fail, Government High School Ghoriwal reported zero success among 18 students, and at Government High School Sarhal, all 23 candidates failed. Government High School Kundrala reported no pass among its 20 candidates.

Other schools showed equally worrying figures. Government High School Lalian had 113 students appearing for the exam, but only 13 passed. Government High School Kamrial sent 103 candidates with just 13 managing to secure passing marks. In Government High School Jand City, out of 107 students, only 14 passed, while Government High School Dhrabi had 90 students, of which only 13 succeeded. The highest-performing school, Government High School Kalgan, had a pass percentage of just 47.1 with eight students passing out of 17.

Among the better-performing institutions, Government High School Gallan had 17 students with nine clearing the exam, while Government High School Meelwal produced 64 passes out of 146 students — the highest number of successful candidates but still a failure rate of over 56 per cent.

“The catastrophic 9th-grade board examination results in Tehsil Jand are not merely a statistic; they are an indictment of our education system’s failure at the most fundamental level” said an educationist, Dr Mohammad Asif.

We cannot afford to let another generation in Jand, or anywhere else in Pakistan, be written off as collateral damage in a culture of administrative indifference, said Ijaz Safri, a social worker of the area.

Educationists have attributed these dismal results to chronic teacher absenteeism, lack of accountability, and inadequate facilities. Many rural schools reportedly function without full-time staff, while the absence of science laboratories, libraries and basic infrastructure has severely hampered the learning environment. Experts have also pointed to weak foundations at the primary level, leaving students unprepared for secondary-level examinations.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2025