With the announcement of its plan to offer students grace marks for exams, the Inter Boards Coordination Commission (IBCC) has launched an educational reform effort.

In the upcoming days, the panel also suggested that all educational boards in Pakistan standardise the procedure for impartial and consistent examination evaluations.

"We are working on reforms," said Executive Director Dr. Ghulam Ali Mallah during a press conference on Tuesday at the IBCC office in Karachi. We submitted our proposals at a meeting in Skardu, and they will soon be accepted and put into action.

He reported that following two days of deliberation, a subcommittee meeting at the Karachi Secondary Education Board came to the conclusion that seven passing marks would now be necessary from all educational boards in the whole country. The upcoming academic year will see an increase in the passing score from 33 to 40.

Additionally, the commission opted to change the exam structure from open-choice to closed-choice, with 100% of the options available. Students will have a selection of 14 questions, for example, if there are seven questions.

According to Dr. Mallah, students often answer simpler, memory-based questions, which is unfair to those who try harder questions. Instead of removing possibilities, we are adding more of them with a close-choice style, making sure that every question contains two knowledge-based options.

He underlined once more that the goal is to help students become more adept academics by pushing them to think critically rather than just memorise information. He continued, "We will provide students technology-based solutions."

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Additionally, Dr. Mallah outlined a plan to resolve course mark differences for students switching boards. He stated that we are thinking about offering average marks to students who transfer boards and have discrepancies in their course grades.

The new grading scheme and the effects of adding grace marks were also covered in the conference. The SSC and HSSC examination papers for Islamic Studies and Pakistan Studies were the main topic of discussion.

There are 29 examination boards in Pakistan, according to Dr. Mallah, and their assessment criteria vary. Stakeholders and the IBCC are working together to create a national assessment framework.

All heads of educational boards have received the recommendations, which will be put up for approval at the upcoming conference and probably put into effect by December of this year.

He also emphasised the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the Indian Bank Cricket Council (IBCC), which aims to develop young talent at the grassroots level, promote cricket in schools and colleges, and establish educational institutions as important breeding grounds for future cricket stars.