Plan to introduce GPA system deferred until 2025

Karachi: The Inter Boards Coordination Commission (IBCC) has deferred for a year its plan to implement the new grading system for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and the Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC), according to which the pass mark was to be raised to 40 per cent.

Sources said the plan had to be postponed due to Sindh’s education boards being unprepared, so the recent IBCC sub-committee meeting decided that the new grading scheme would be applicable from 2025 onwards.

The IBCC has planned to introduce the grade point average (GPA) system for matriculation and intermediate annual examinations, with the pass mark to be increased from 33 per cent to 40 per cent.

Under the new grading system, the marks obtained by students would be removed from their marks sheets in a phased manner and only grades would be given, while the grading system would be shifted completely to the cumulative grade point average (CGPA) system in three years.

In the new grading system, the ‘fail’ grade would be replaced by ‘unsatisfactory’, while A++ (95-100 per cent) would be marked as ‘exceptional’, A+ (90-94 per cent) as ‘outstanding’ and A (85-89 per cent) as ‘excellent’. Other grades would be ‘very good’, ‘good’, ‘fairly good’, ‘above average’ and ‘below average’.