LAHORE(National Times)- The Punjab Curriculum, Training and Assessment Authority (PECTAA) has revived the province-wide Grade-8 standardised public examinations, introducing a technology-driven assessment system aimed at strengthening transparency and academic standards in the school education sector. The examination exercise began on March 9 and concluded on March 12, with nearly one million students participating across Punjab. Education experts have described the initiative as a significant step towards restoring assessment standards and reinforcing merit-based evaluation within the public school system. The initiative was undertaken under the patronage of the chief minister and the oversight of Provincial Minister for School Education Rana Sikandar Hayat. According to officials, the examinations were conducted under the leadership of PECTAA Chief Executive Officer Muhammad Musa Ali Bokhari, with Managing Director Academics Dr Zubda Zia overseeing academic planning, assessment design and the quality assurance framework. Officials said the operational and technical implementation of the assessment was carried out by the PECTAA assessment and information technology teams. Across Punjab, authorities established 1,901 clusters and 5,714 examination centres involving 26,047 schools. A total of 6,104 superintendents and 21,735 invigilators were deployed to administer the examinations, while 994,651 students from 40 districts and 144 tehsils appeared in the assessment. To ensure uniform implementation, PECTAA conducted training sessions for Tehsil Focal Persons of District Education Authorities, as well as for superintendents and invigilators, to familiarise them with examination protocols and digital monitoring procedures. Officials said the revived examination introduced several technological innovations, including AI-supported e-marking, QR-coded answer scripts and a digital item bank. Mobile applications were also used for student attendance, answer-script scanning and real-time monitoring. To minimise the risk of cheating, four different versions of the question paper were generated through a secure digital system, ensuring that adjacent students received different papers. PECTAA also introduced a live digital monitoring dashboard that provided real-time information to central control rooms on student attendance, staff presence and delivery of examination papers at centres across the province. The Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education supported the process by appointing distributing inspectors responsible for the secure transportation and collection of examination papers. Joint monitoring teams from the School Education Department, PECTAA and District Education Authorities inspected more than 1,500 examination centres daily, officials said. Alongside the Grade-8 examination, the authority also conducted School-Based Assessments across Punjab starting March 9, covering around 6.8 million students. Officials said managing both assessment exercises simultaneously reflected the authority’s operational capacity, as evaluation processes affecting nearly eight million students were carried out across the province. Education experts, parents and stakeholders have welcomed the introduction of the technology-enabled examination system, describing it as a move aimed at improving transparency and restoring public confidence in Punjab’s school education assessment process.