Minister of State Engr Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman attended the certificates distribution ceremony at NEAS (National Education Assessment System) today.
It is indeed a matter of great pleasure for me to be here today amongst this distinguished gathering of assessment experts, said the State Minister. In the recent past, the present government took measures to give more importance to educational assessments in the country. We understand the importance of these assessments in finding the learning enablers and providing evidence-based data for the policy-makers in the shape of their recommendations.
Minister of State said that after 2008, NEAS was unable to conduct national assessment. So it was directed to conduct National assessment in 2014 and now we are going to conduct another cycle of national assessment this year. The Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training are committed to support NEAS to conduct the planned National Achievement Testing (NAT)-2016. We have increased the sample size for national assessment-2016 which is now 30,000 students from the previous sample size of 12000 students.
NEAS has also been directed to include schools established under NCHD, BECS, education foundations and private sector in its assessment of 2016. This will help us to understand the quality of education in these sectors, state the Minister. For this large scale national assessment, necessary budget have already been released from government regular budget. This year we are conducting national assessment without any financial and technical support of our international partners.
M/o Federal Education constituted National Steering Committee (NSC) under Chairmanship of Federal Secretary to decide upon the subjects and grades which are to be included in this year’s assessment. To compete globally, our government has decided to participate in the forth-coming international TIMSS study (Trends in International Math and Science Study) in 2019. This will enable us to see Pakistan’s standing on the international platform among the population of different developed and developing countries, said the Minister
Minister of State said that it is heartening to witness such a healthy educational activity where the participation rate is 100%. I hope that the skills you have got here will be transformed in the shape of effective training of the 3300 Test Administrators in your own provinces and regions, emphasized the Minister.
In the end, Minister of State distributed the certificates among the participants. He appreciated the efforts of Director NEAS, Dr. Syed Kamal–Ud-Din and his team for organizing the event. We believe that NEAS will continue its periodic assessments to inform policy-makers that would help them in decision making in the field of education, said the Minister.
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