IT is the time of the year again when someone wakes up to the fact that annually, around 100,000 students in Pakistan appear in international high school examinations, mostly IGCSE and O/AS/A-level exams conducted by Cambridge Assessment International Education. Ostensibly, this annual lament is fuelled by concern about the amount of collective funds sent abroad to pay foreign assessment boards, described as foreign entities, and presented as an undue drain on Pakistan’s forex reserves. Recently, we saw another blip in that outrage on social and electronic media.

Commentators directing their ire at foreign assessment boards paint them as exploitative and extractive. Assessment boards usually operate not-for-profit. Exam fees differ by subject, but most are around £100, and cover the cost of designing, administering, shipping, marking, moderating exams, publishing results, record keeping, and curriculum development. These days, in the UK, that is the price of a week of groceries, or a nice three-course dinner for two. While £100 is a significant amount in rupees, in UK terms, the exam fee to support such an array of operations is quite reasonable. Foreign assessment boards are not obligated to offer Pakistanis their services operating at a loss.

For scale, reported figures put the total amount remitted for these fees at $0.25 billion. Pakistan’s total annual forex outflows add up to about $100 billion, ie, the exam fees make up a minuscule 0.25 per cent of forex outflows — peanuts.

Another stretched argument against foreign assessment boards is its characterisation as a colonial hangover. Speaking of colonial hangovers, if the goal is to leave everything English behind, consider re-evaluating our national habit of consuming tea, 99pc of which is imported, adding $0.63bn annually to the import bill, two and a half times what is paid in exam fees.

Outrage at foreign assessment boards is misplaced.

For another comparison, in FY 2024-25, Pakistan imported new and used passenger cars for roughly the same amount. Spending a quarter billion on imported cars because people want to drive something foreign or just to satisfy their ego is acceptable, but spending the same amount on a quality education for 100,000 students is a bridge too far, beyond comprehension, and needs to be scrutinised.

Another criticism is the large number of students who opt for foreign high-school qualifications. In 2025, the combined number of IGCSE and O/AS/A-level students who appeared from Pakistan was slightly above 100,000. Meanwhile, in six times more populous India that number barely breaks above 10,000.

Why are Pakistanis far more eager to earn a foreign qualification? The widely accessible alternative to foreign qualifications is, of course, the domestic SSC and HSSC. The differences between these domestic and foreign high-school qualifications are many: quality of curriculum, credibility, recognition, and global acceptability. While a quality curriculum is desirable for every child, the other factors are of special concern for those who hope to attend a degree programme at a foreign university.

For example, students from the Pakistani HSSC system applying to British universities are usually required to spend an additional year in a foundation programme before they can start their BA/BSc programme. On the other hand, A-level students can proceed directly to undergraduate programmes. The same is true for graduates from India’s CBSE high-school system, thanks to its higher credibility. If our domestic exam system en­­joyed the same cre­­dibility, maybe fewer students wou­­-ld feel pushed to take the A-level route.

Parents are un­­happy about the hit to their pockets, media outlets get to report another sto­ry, and politicians and bureaucrats get to demonise a foreign entity. The Constitu­tion gives all citizens aged five to 16 the right to a free public education, but that is the responsibility of the state, not of any foreign assessment board. If parents are pushed to opt for a foreign school system, that is an indictment of the public school system. Outrage at foreign assessment boards is misplaced. Still, it serves politicians, bureaucrats, and the government machinery as a convenient distraction from their own failure to fulfil the state’s responsibility to deliver quality schooling.

Meanwhile, Punjab’s education minister promised that this issue “would be resolved in the next two years”, without giving details. Unless the good minister is hoping to significantly raise the per capita GDP so fees will not sting so much, we should all be very wary of any solution he hopes to come up with in such a short time. While you ponder what rabbit the government can pull out of its hat, other than price controls or banning foreign assessment boards from operating, I am going to go make myself a cup of tea.

The writer has a PhD in education.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2025