A tale of two sectors: Private vs public education in Pakistan
The 2025 HSSC (Intermediate Part II) results for Punjab announced across the nine provincial boards offer a clear, data-rich snapshot of how Pakistan’s education ecosystem is performing at the upper-secondary level.
The headline numbers tell a simple story: private colleges claimed the lion’s share of top positions, while public (government/semi-government) colleges lagged.
Behind those figures, however, lie important lessons about resources, teaching, regional inequality and how successful institutions set practical benchmarks for improvement.
The numbers that matter
Across all boards, 335 top positions (first, second, and third across groups) were announced. Of those, roughly 84% came from private-sector institutions while government and semi-government colleges accounted for about 16%.
Female candidates continued to outperform male candidates across streams and boards — a consistent trend in recent years.
Among private institutions, the Punjab Group of Colleges secured a remarkable number of top positions across multiple boards, demonstrating the positive outcomes of structured teaching, supportive learning environments, and dedicated academic culture.
Why private institutions performed better
The private-public gap is not surprising, but the scale highlights structural and institutional differences:
Concentrated resources and infrastructure
Private colleges can allocate budgets for exam preparation, smaller class sizes in key subjects, modern labs, and targeted revision programmes — investments that directly improve student performance.
Targeted academic culture
Institutions like the Punjab Group of Colleges run structured timetables, mock exams, and revision sessions designed around the HSSC syllabus, which improves both understanding and exam technique.
Performance incentives
High-performing private colleges recruit and reward teachers based on results, creating a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
Parental support and coaching
Students at private colleges often have access to additional academic resources, creating an ecosystem that amplifies learning outcomes.
These factors explain the strong performance of private institutions while also showing how public colleges, often under resource constraints, face systemic challenges despite having talented students and teachers.
Regional patterns and board-level context
Board-wise pass percentages show significant regional variation. Some boards exceeded 70–80% pass rates, while others remained closer to 50–60%, reflecting urban-rural divides, unequal access to qualified teachers, and differences in local investments.
The Punjab Group of Colleges’ achievements for example across Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan, Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur, Sahiwal, Sargodha, and the Federal Board show how coordinated institutional support can help students excel regardless of regional disparities.
Learning from successful institutions
High-performing institutions provide examples for others without turning the article promotional. The Punjab Group of Colleges, in particular, secured a substantial share of top positions across multiple boards, demonstrating the benefits of structured teaching, continuous assessment, and dedicated student support.
Their board-wise achievements — such as 18 positions in Lahore, 22 in Gujranwala, 18 in Faisalabad, and strong representation across Multan, Rawalpindi, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, DG Khan, and the Federal Board — illustrate how a consistent academic culture can produce measurable gains. Other institutions could adapt selected practises to improve student outcomes.
What policymakers and educators can do next?
The 2025 results point to several practical steps that could narrow the public-private gap and raise overall system performance:
The 2025 results point to several practical steps that could narrow the public-private gap and raise overall system performance:
Targeted resource allocation
Direct funds to underperforming boards and public colleges to improve basic infrastructure, hire qualified teachers and run exam-focused remediation.
Scale effective practices
Identify high-impact practises used by successful institutions (e.g., regular mock exams, teacher mentoring, diagnostic testing) and pilot them in public colleges with monitoring and evaluation.
Teacher development
Invest in sustained professional development that emphasises formative assessment, curriculum alignment and student engagement strategies rather than one-off trainings.
Data-driven local planning
Use board-level result data to design district-specific interventions — the variability across boards shows that local solutions yield better returns than blanket policies.
Equity-focused supports
Strengthen programmes that support disadvantaged students — scholarships, remedial classes, and transport or digital access — so gains aren’t limited to those already advantaged.
By learning from these outcomes, policymakers, educators, and institutions can implement targeted improvements to raise academic performance across the board, ensuring that a student’s chance of success is determined less by where they study and more by the quality of teaching and support they receive.
The path forward is clear: combine best practices, invest in teachers, and create learning environments that allow every student to thrive.