The Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) Forum in its meeting on Friday recommended to shift examination and assessment system of intermediate and secondary education from rote to conceptual learning.

According to the IBCC, an agenda item for the improvement of examination system was placed in 170th meeting of the Forum at Islamabad which was attended by 49 members, including 30 examination boards.

All the boards agreed that the examination and assessment pattern should be shifted from rote learning to conceptual learning. During the meeting, it was resolved that all the examination boards will prepare SLO (Students Learning Outcome) based question papers in future.

The boards agreed to gradually move towards higher cognitive level questions with the weightage Knowledge 30 percent, Understanding 50 percent and Application 20 percent.

The Forum recommended various examination reforms and advised boards to discuss the implementation strategy at their concerned forums.

The major recommendations include introducing automation of examination for improving efficiency and transparency, conducting curriculum-based examination, capacity building of examination staff and teachers to make assessment more valid and reliable, developing central items bank and rubrics to make assessment authentic, enhancing security system at the examination centers to curb cheating and other malpractices in examination, e-marking to make work smarter & faster, establishing research section in boards for analysis and future improvements.

The forum appreciated the initiatives taken by Federal Board and Kohat Board for introducing various reforms and technology in the examination system to ensure transparency and reliability.

IBCC Secretary Prof Dr Ghulam Ali Mallah said these recommendations would play pivotal role to dent the old conventional system that is based on memorization. The reforms will help students to be problem-solvers.