NEAB

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NEAB (Northern Examinations and Assessment Board) was an examination board serving England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1992 until 2000.

NEAB was formed in 1992 by the merger of the Joint Matriculation Board (JMB) and the Northern Examining Association (NEA), which itself was an alliance of the Associated Lancashire Schools Examining Board, the North Regional Examinations Board, the North West Regional Examinations Board and the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Examinations Board.

The board offered a variety of GCSE, A Level and other qualifications. Despite its name, a change in the law allowed schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to choose any of the regional examination boards and NEAB established itself as the biggest examination board in the UK.

In 1997, NEAB entered into an alliance with the Associated Examining Board/Southern Examining Group (AEB/SEG) and City & Guilds known as the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA). By 1999, examination papers were dual-branded with both the AQA and NEAB names on the papers and the 1999 examination certificates featured just the AQA name. In 2000 the boards formally merged. As NEAB and AEB/SEG overlapped in the qualifications they offered, AQA retained two specifications for many subjects and do until this day, with schools able to choose between the two.