Analysis of Grade Inflation at Secondary School Level: Case Study of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Multan

Abstract

The main objective of the present study was to investigate into the distribution of grades and grading trends in secondary and higher secondary schools of Southern Punjab by using the grade data of students who passed their SSC and HSSC annual examinations in Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Multan during the period 2004-2013. This paper attempts to quantify the changes in grading patterns by applying mean and percentage statistics over a specific period and also examines whether rise in students’ grades is reflection of improvement in students’ performance or it is a manifestation of grade inflation. The total number of sample students (SSC 606182+HSSC 276846) across the 10 years was about 0.883 million and their grade data was extracted from annual examination result gazettes of (BISE) Multan. The data analysis reveals that in both the SSC and HSSC level examinations, a pattern of increase in higher grades A & B and decrease in lower grades seems to be prevalent. Although the reasons for these changes remained unclear, yet the tentative explanations have been given. It was suggested that radical changes in assessment techniques along-with the complete overhauling of Pakistani school education system was imperative to address the issue of grade inflation.