Punjab School Education Board has taken a decisive step towards improving the quality of education and testing the intellectual ability of students. The board has made extensive and important changes in the structure (pattern) of the question papers of the 8th, 10th and 12th annual examinations for the academic session 2025-26. In this regard, the official letter issued by the board has clarified that the main purpose of these changes is to strengthen the ‘conceptual understanding’ of the students by taking them away from the rote process. The board aims to restore the pre-corona educational level.
In the guidelines issued by the board to all district education officers and school heads, it has been stated that these changes in the level of question papers are in accordance with the standards of the academic session 2018-19 (before Corona period). The Board is of the opinion that it is necessary to re-implement the old and better standards for future examinations. It has been instructed by the board to inform all the teachers of the district who are teaching these categories so that they can prepare the students for the board exams according to the changed pattern.
3 major changes made in the question papers
– reduction in objective questions: The number of objective type questions asked in the question papers has been reduced from 40% to 25%.
– Questions to be asked from within the text: Earlier 100% of the questions were asked only from the exercises (exercises) given at the back of the textbooks, but now from the session 2025-26 it has been made mandatory that at least 25% of the questions will be asked from within the subject matter (chapter content) of the text, while the remaining 75% of the questions will be from the exercises. This will make the students read the entire chapter in depth.
– Increase in difficulty level (difficulty level): The board has also changed the ratio of difficulty to raise the level of exams. In previous years, the level of question papers was 40% below average (easy), 40% average and 20% above average (difficult). Now it has been changed to 30% below average, 40% average and 30% above average.