ISLAMABAD: Cambridge International Education on Thursday confirmed leakage of A-level Mathematics Paper 12 (9709), stating that work is underway to understand the extent of the leak and determine next steps.

Following last year’s leakage of several papers, there was much uproar by Pakistani students that the Mathematics paper was leaked hours before the exam.

“We can confirm that Cambridge International AS Level Mathematics Paper 12 (9709) taken in our Africa, Europe, Middle East, Pakistan and South Asia regions, was shared prematurely against our regulations,” read a statement issued by Cambridge.

“We investigate such incidents promptly and thoroughly and we are now working to understand the extent of the leak and determine next steps. Our priority is to ensure that students are not disadvantaged by this incident and we continue to take all possible measures to protect the integrity of our exams. It is important that candidates continue to prepare for and take upcoming exams. Our decisions about the next steps are taken by senior and experienced professionals who are in possession of all the facts, and our principles are: ensuring the reliability of the grades that we award, so that universities and other users of the grades can continue to trust them, and minimising the distress and disruption caused to students by the theft of the paper,” reads the statement.

“We take the impact of incidents such as this on students extremely seriously. We value the trust placed in us to deliver over two million exams each year in 160 countries and provide fair results. It remains rare for the integrity of an exam to be compromised, and we take appropriate sanctions against centres and students where we have evidence of malpractice. We thank all our students and schools for their patience and ask them to await further updates. We will update you on our progress on Thursday, 7 May,” reads the statement.

Meanwhile, sources in the Education Ministry told Dawn that Inter Board Coordination Commission (IBCC) on Thursday sent a letter to Cambridge through email and also received a reply, which confirmed that the paper in question was shared prematurely [leak] against their regulations.

Cambridge sources said they informed IBCC that they were working to understand the extent of the leak and determine next steps. “We will update you [IBCC] on our progress on Thursday, 7 May 2026,” read their reply.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2026