THE A-Level examinations are still in progress, but there have been allegations that some papers were `leaked`, as per newspaper reports and statements attributed to officials at the Inter Board Coordination Commission. There was even a session of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Education where the matter was discussed.

Examination leaks are not new. Last year, an AS-Level math paper was allegedly leaked.

Cambridge investigated the incident. The paper was not marked and students were graded on other papers. They were given the option to take the paper later.

If you Google `examination paper leaks in Pakistan`, you get thousands of hits. Board examinations are notorious in this regard, but in recent times MDCAT exam leaks too have been in the news. This is not surprising.

There are high stakes involved in the Matriculation, Intermediate, 0-Levels, A-Levels and professional entry tests and examinations.

Student admissions depend on these examinations. Students, parents and teachers have strong incentives to influence performance and results if they can. They would be willing to pay a lot to be able to do that. So, the incentive to cheat and/ or leak information or exam papers is very strong.

Protocols, SOPs and other methods should be designed to ensure the integrity of the examinations to the greatest extent possible. All exam bodies and boards are working on these round the clock. But the fact remains that where hundreds of thousands of students are appearing for examinations, there will always be the possibility of leaks. Many people are involved in the administration of examinations and there will always be some probability, however small, of papersbeingleaked.

It is not as if examination bodies have not changed the way they conduct examinations.

They have and a lot. I sat for my O-Level and A-Level exams in my own school. And it was mostly our own teachers who invigilated. We did not need any identification documents forappearing in those exams. There were no leaks those years.

Much has changed since then. Examination centres are now especially chosen venues, with a lot of security and video surveillance there.

Specific identification documents are needed for entry and while taking the exam. No electronics are allowed in. There is a lot of scrutiny of candidates during examinations and of invigilators as well. Multiple papers are made for every examination and questions and papers are randomised to make cheating and leaks harder.

Some examination bodies have shifted to computer-based tests only. Computer-based administration can be very secure. If reasonable precautions are in place, it is very hard to cheat or leak papers. But computer-based solutions are very expensive and time-consuming. If the number of candidates are in the thousands or hundreds of thousands (Matriculation and 0-Level candidates fall in the latter category) computer-based administration is not possible. We do not have that many secure machines for so many candidates. So, exams with a large number of candidates, at least for the time being, will have to be paper-based in Pakistan. Thus the possibility of leaks and cheating remains.

But if a paper is leaked, why does it become an occasion for settling scores with or bashing examinations bodies, or fighting over domains? It should definitely be an occasion for investigation, reflection and reform. It should, at times, be the basis for accountability too. But it should not be a reason to run down institutions. The logic is strange. A paper is leaked. An institution is bashed. And we expect the same institution to serve our children the next year and to serve them better! There are, at least, two larger issues that need some thought. It is the high-stakes nature of these summative or entry examinations that make cheating and resorting to other unfair means to do better so attractive. Maybe we should lower the stakes and not make these examinations summative. The summativenature of these tests and examinations can be fixed with relative ease. We need to move towards formative and portfolio-based assessments. This is better for the students anyway.

There have already been moves in this direction in some assessment systems and subjects, but thereneedstobe greaterfocus on this step.

The high-stakes nature of these examinations needs to be changed by broadening the criteria for admission to universities. A student`s performance in Matriculation/ Intermediate/ Oor A-Levels exams should be only a small part of the standards a university applies to judge the suitability of candidates for admission. The university should have ways of assessing extracurricular engagements, other skills and talent, sporting prowess, community engagement and entrepreneurial engagement and count them as relevant areas when evaluating incoming students. Given that success in life, for which universities are supposed to prepare their students, entails much more than academic performance in a few subjects and tests, making admission criteria broader makes sense. And it will also help with reducing the stakes around these examinations.

As long as there are high-stakes summative examinations, irrespective of the state of the level of morality or ethics in a society, there will be strong incentives to resort to unfair means.

Systems can make cheating harder, but where hundreds of thousands of students are involved, it is practically impossible to make exam papers leak-proof. S o, to reiterate, when leaks happen, it should be a time for reflection, learning and reform, and not for institution bashing, which only hurts the future of students. However, at the same time, there should be a concerted effort by all education stakeholders to lower the summative and high-stakes nature of examinations.

We need this for students` well-being as well as better learning.

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Altematives and an associate professor of economics at Lums.