Punjab's Inter Part One results have come out considerably stronger than last year's. Across all nine education boards in the province, the combined pass rate climbed from 53.73 percent to 60.36 percent. That is a gain of more than six percentage points in a single cycle. The number of successful students rose as well, from 412,292 to 435,358. In headcount terms, roughly 23,000 more candidates cleared the exams this time. The figures were gathered into a report that has now been presented to Punjab's education minister in Lahore. The document sets out how each board performed and what the combined totals add up to. For the province's education authorities, the jump stands in clear contrast to the weaker results recorded a year earlier.