City fails the new math

Karachi's ninth-grade General Group pass rate has collapsed to 36% - an 18-point drop from last year after the minimum passing marks were raised from 33 to 40 under a new nationwide grading policy, with 64 per cent of students failing the 2026 examinations. According to Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) data, 5,185 of the 14,277 students who appeared for the General Group examinations passed all their papers, putting the overall pass rate at 36 per cent. As many as 8,981 students failed. In comparison, 8,149 students passed all their papers last year, while 6,803 failed out of 14,984 candidates. The pass rate in 2025 stood at more than 54 per cent. BSEK sources attributed the sharp decline primarily to the new grading policy, under which the minimum passing marks for each subject have been increased from 33 to 40. The sources said the revised policy had made the examinations more competitive and resulted in a substantial increase in the number of students failing to clear all their papers. The new grading policy has been introduced nationwide from this year's examinations. It is being implemented for ninth and 11th grades in 2026, while the policy will be extended to 10th and 12th grades from 2027. The BSEK has so far announced the ninth-grade General Group result, while the result for the Science Group is still awaited. Results for ninth-grade examinations conducted by other educational boards in Sindh are also pending. According to BSEK sources, the pass rate could decline further across the province if the results are strictly based on merit under the revised grading system. The sources, however, cautioned that some boards could face pressure to improve their pass percentages, potentially raising concerns about adherence to the new assessment standards.