Lahore board announces key changes to exams marking system
2026-02-20 - 09:13
LAHORE – The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Lahore has made significant changes to practical examination process for class 9th to ensure transparency in the exam system. It has introduced e-marking for practical papers in the 9th-grade exams. BISE Lahore Secretary Rizwan Nazir confirmed the development while talking to private news channeled and explained that there had been numerous complaints regarding mismanagement during practical exams, especially concerning the role of invigilators. “Just as our paper checking is centralized, the theoretical portion of practical papers will now also be sent to our centralized marking center for evaluation,” he said. Nazir further revealed that there had been reports of misuse of the full 30 marks allocated to examiners during practical exams, a situation which led to the decision to centralize the marking process. “To address this issue, Education Minister Rana Sikandar and Mazmal Mahmood personally intervened and instructed that the misuse should be stopped immediately. Now, practical exams will also undergo centralized marking, and cameras will be installed in labs to prevent mismanagement,” he explained. How E-Marking Works Regarding the new e-marking system, Nazir clarified that students’ answers will be recorded on “e-sheets,” where each question will have a designated space. Once the papers are received by the board, they will be scanned and divided into sections. “Examiners will no longer need to visit centers. Instead, they will be provided with IDs and can mark the papers from home,” Nazir said. In an effort to further ensure the integrity of the marking process, the Lahore Board will monitor examiners in real-time via cameras. Instead of one examiner handling 100 papers, the new system will assign a limited number of questions (such as 50 or 10 questions) from various answer sheets to each examiner. This approach will also be implemented for the ICS papers in the first annual exams across Punjab, with plans to transition all exams to e-marking within the next two to three years.