The latest matriculation results released by the Peshawar board have drawn sharp attention to the crisis in public education across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where government school students in several districts performed poorly under the PTI-led administration.
According to figures shared by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Peshawar, only 151 out of 739 government school students in Peshawar, Charsadda, Chitral, Khyber, and Mohmand passed the exams, resulting in an average pass rate of just 20%. In some schools, every student failed.
Institutions such as Government Girls School Haryana Payan in Peshawar and Government School Beori in Chitral reported a 100% failure rate. Other troubling statistics emerged from schools in Charsadda and Chitral, where the number of failing students far outweighed those who passed.
In contrast, the overall performance across all institutions was much more positive. The BISE Peshawar announced that 76,484 out of 91,589 candidates passed, reflecting an overall success rate of 83.5%. These numbers, however, have drawn a stark comparison between government and private sector schools.
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The top-performing students this year were all female and represented private schools. Fatimah Jugnu of Peshawar Model School Girls Branch 2 topped the science group with 1,180 marks. Sara Imran followed closely with 1,178, while Shumaila and Aina Shoaib secured third place with 1,176 marks each.
Education experts and parents have expressed frustration, blaming lack of training, accountability, and resources in public schools. Critics argue that the figures highlight systemic issues that have been neglected by provincial authorities, despite repeated promises to improve government-run education.
Education officials have yet to comment on the poor performance in specific schools, but calls for urgent reforms and accountability are growing louder. Analysts say the glaring divide between public and private schools reflects deeper structural problems in the province’s education system.