Lahore, Dec 22. The federal government has decided to establish National Educational Assessment System (NEAS) to ensure quality education through improvement/revision in curricula, textbooks, teacher's training, examinations and policy formation.

Although the total project cost is yet to be known, the World Bank has agreed to provide funds in the form of loan. For this purpose ECNEC has already given the necessary approval. The project would also have its legs in all the four respective provincial headquarters (PEACEs) that would be responsible for implementing the policies in their respective areas as well as to coordinate with centre to support its endeavours and extend integrated data for compilation and feedback.

The NEAS is being launched in Islamabad on December 23 (Tuesday) and is aimed at setting-up minimum standards/norms for performance at at all relevant education levels. The project has been undertaken as a vital component of Education Sector Reforms (ESR) in the country.

The NEAS system would develop national capacity for monitoring learning achievements of elementary students in order to improve the quality of services in education sector. It will develop institutional capacity for examination development and administration, statistical analysis and report writing with focus on stakeholders.

The NEAS unit would be established in the curriculum wing of the Ministry of Education with adequate assessment professionals and support staff and other logistic facilities. An intensive short-term and long-term training program would be implemented to develop sustainable assessment skills in federal, provincial and area professionals respectively.

The NEAS would coordinate and support provincial assessment activities to develop an integral national assessment system besides establishing student achievement benchmarks and conducting subsequent periodic assessment including a data on background variables or the 'conditions of learning'.

The centre would be responsible for piloting tests on sample schools in information, communication technologies, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of assessment information, findings and recommendations to stakeholders for improving the quality of education through strategic interventions.

It would also identify educational institutions in Pakistan to institutionalize an indigenous capacity-building capability and development of professional linkages with institutions having assessment expertise-nationally, regionally and internationally in particular in initial years of the project to ensure sustainability.

The centre would develop a blueprint for assessment instruments with respective translations, ensure quality control, develop schedule for scoring and marking in provinces / other areas, coordinate work plan of IT systems usage besides preparing national report and compile relevant data.

The establishment  of NEAS and PEACEs comes as an initiative of curriculum wing of federal education ministry that has the legal mandate (Act X of 1976) for supervision of curricula, textbooks and maintenance of education standards in the country.

The ministry initiated a dialogue pertaining to needs and mechanism for the establishment of national education assessment system (NEAS), as an integral part of education was initiated in the national workshop in 1997.

This was followed by a number of seminars, national/provincial workshops and technical group meetings (TGMs) in which a consensus was reached about establishing NEAS and PEACEs as the institutional base for monitoring and ensuring quality education.

The launching of the project on Tuesday follows six years of comprehensive debate on the subject and input by professionals before converging on the consensus points and finalizing draft document for on-ground implementation.

The Institute of Education and Research at Punjab University has been declared as the focal point for policy-making and performing coordinating role all over the country in order to yield the desired results for the project, the time span of which has not been decided as yet.