Lahore education board bans uploading of guess papers on social media

LAHORE: Everyone who studies in government or private schools in Pakistan knows that up to middle school, before exams, most students definitely ask their teachers one question – the topics most likely to appear in the exams.

In response, the teachers also tell the children about the questions that are more important or which are more likely to appear in the exam. In this way, students are able to avoid the extra effort that is needed to prepare the entire syllabus.

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Moving toward higher education classes, i.e. ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades, it is common for students to take help from the exams of previous years, commonly sold as ‘past papers’, and can also be found online these days.

A lot of these past papers, model papers or guess papers in the markets, which not only include the exam questions of three, five or ten years along with their answers. These past papers are not part of the textbooks, but the answers given often encompass the essence of the subject matters in a comprehensive way.

This often leads students to opt for only studying with past papers instead of consulting books and covering the syllabi in their entirety. Considering this negative impact of the guess papers, the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Lahore, has banned teachers from uploading exam-related question papers and guess papers on social media. The aim is to discourage the trend of prioritising past parts over course books.

A letter has also been issued by the department in this regard, which terms that this practice as a crime under the amended Act of 1999.

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“Those involved can be punished with imprisonment for up to three years and a fine of Rs50,000,” the letter said.

According to the owners of bookshops in the markets, medical and engineering students also buy model papers. However, some teachers believe that relying on these past papers instead of reading the entire syllabus prevents the development of critical thinking.