Mass Failures in KP Govt Schools Spark Education Crisis

Government schools in several districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have come under fire following alarming matriculation results that revealed widespread academic failure, particularly in rural and tribal regions.

Official data from the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Peshawar shows that of 739 students from government schools in districts such as Peshawar, Charsadda, Chitral, Khyber, and Mohmand, only 151 passed — a success rate of just over 20 percent. Several schools recorded zero pass rates, raising urgent concerns over the quality of education in the province.

Among the worst-affected institutions were Government Girls School Haryana Payan in Peshawar and Government School Beori in Chitral, where no student managed to pass. In Chitral, only 5 out of 30 students from four separate government schools succeeded. Similarly, Government Girls School Daman-e-Afghani saw 33 out of 35 students fail, while 11 of 13 failed at the Women’s Higher Secondary School in Charsadda.

These figures stand in stark contrast to the overall result announced by BISE Peshawar, which reported an 83.5% pass rate among the 91,589 students who appeared in the exams this year. A total of 76,484 students cleared their matriculation, while 14,530 did not.

The results have sparked criticism of the PTI-led provincial government’s handling of public education. Observers have questioned teacher competency, resource allocation, and the performance of the education department’s monitoring system.

In contrast to government schools, private institutions showed significantly better performance. Female students, particularly from Peshawar Model School Girls Branches, secured top positions in the science group. Fatimah Jugnu topped the board with 1,180 marks, followed closely by Sara Imran with 1,178. Third place was shared by Shumaila and Aina Shoaib, both scoring 1,176 marks.