National Testing Service

National Testing Service
Founded 2006
Headquarters Islamabad, Pakistan
Products NAT and General Subject Tests and General Assessement Test
Services Testing, assessments and research for educational use
Website nts.org.pk

National Testing Service - Pakistan (NTS) is an organization in Pakistan that administers academic performance evaluation tests. It is similar to Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the United States. NTS offers two main types of tests, the National Aptitude Test (NAT) and the Graduate Assessment Test (GAT). NAT is aimed at students seeking admission to colleges and universities. GAT is aimed at graduates seeking admission to postgraduate education. NTS exams are also used to determine qualifications of students seeking advanced study abroad.[1]

NTS is a Member of the International Association for Educational Assessment, USA (IAEA).It is also recognized by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC). The NTS was developed to ensure quality educational standards in Pakistan and to "provide a national scale for comparative grading between institutes",[2] consolidating examination boards under one administrating body.[3] According to Shahid Siddiqui, director of The Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences at the Lahore School of Economics, tests implemented prior to the development of the NTS were criticized as not accommodating socio-cultural differences, resulting in a need for "an indigenous testing service that should design and develop testing materials within an indigenous context".[4] Prominent Pakistani institutions like COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) and Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering (CASE) have made it compulsory for students seeking admission to have cleared tests conducted by NTS.[5][6]

History

Controversy erupted in 2007 following the mandating of NTS testing, first announced by Khalid Maqbool, Governor of Punjab, with regards to admission to universities and later set aside by the government unless the laws regarding university admission were amended.[7][8] Criticism included allegations that the services were inconvenient to access and prohibitively expensive to economically challenged students.[8][9] Maqbool called for input from the vice-chancellors of Punjab's public universities on 4 June.[10] That year, each university department was permitted to set its own entrance requirements, with six of 64 departments at Punjab University electing to utilize tests from NTS.[11][12] In October 2007, the vice-chancellor of Punjab University, Muhammad Arif Butt, endorsed the use of NTS testing in all departments of the university.[13] NTS director Dr. Haroon Rasheed said that no tuition centres are associated with the service and NTS exams will not be out of course.[14]

Criticism

NTS has sought to establish a national educational standard for Pakistan but at the same time as an organization cannot and has not catered to the regionally diverse Pakistani nation. NTS resources are geographically restricted and both quantitatively and qualitatively limited. As stated by interface - an educational consultancy. Its contention as an independent NGO can also be challenged as it is affiliated with numerous regular testing centers of Comsats (as semi-Government body or inter-Governmental organization) & Public / Governmental education Institutions for their entrance / admission exams. A recent controversy of regular operational error has also arisen for Phd. assessment tests. The credibility / irresponsibility on the part of NTS officials has disqualified the candidates from applying in MPhil/PhD programs at public and private sector institutes because under HEC rules, they do not have any proof of clearing the test.[15] The overall process lacks credibility & transparency due to the un-disclosed nature of alternative processes for any participants, when they do not fall in the norms of the operating procedure (i.e. errors / loop holes) due to complexities that arise from multifarious of socioeconomic nature of challenges in present day environment of Pakistan.[16][17] [18] Unfortunately, the NTS management have even been caught and identified as plagiarizing test questions and are indirectly controlled by Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC).[19]

References

  1. ↑ Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Education. (2 May 2006). Cuba to sponsor 1000 Pakistani students for medical studies. Ministry of Education, Pakistan; official website. Accessed 10 January 2008.
  2. ↑ Atta-ur-Rahman, Federal Minister for Science and Technology. (8 September 2001) IT – a great opportunity. Government of Sindh, official website. Accessed 10 January 2008.
  3. ↑ Revolutionary steps get nod for educational regime. Pakistan Observer. (9 August 2007) Accessed 10 January 2008.
  4. ↑ Siddiqui, Shahid. (1 October 2007). Assessing assessment. The International News. Accessed 10 January 2008.
  5. ↑ CASE Admissions
  6. ↑ BZU Admissions
  7. ↑ Entry test of public universities through NTS: Governor Associated Press of Pakistan. Accessed 10 January 2008.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Khattak, Khalid. (28 May 2007) To test or not to test—that is the question. Daily Times. Accessed 10 January 2008.
  9. ↑ Punjab University Academic Staff Association(PUASA) slams entry tests Interface, Pakistan. Accessed 10 January 2008.
  10. ↑ NTS still in dark about entrance test in Punjab. Interface, Pakistan. Accessed 10 January 2008.
  11. ↑ 36 PU departments hold entry tests. Interface, Pakistan. Accessed 10 January 2008.
  12. ↑ Admission controversies. Interface, Pakistan. Accessed 10 January 2008.
  13. ↑ 'PU all for entrance test through NTS' Interface, Pakistan. Accessed 10 January 2008.
  14. ↑ NTS exam will not be out of course. Daily Times, Accessed 11 January 2008.
  15. ↑ NTS, HEC putting students’ future at stake (3 January 2010).
  16. ↑ Students demand HEC abolish NTS examination (24 May 2008) Daily Times last accessed 17 March 2010.
  17. ↑ MPhil students not being awarded degrees without clearing NTS (20 July 2008). Daily Times last accessed 17 March 2010.
  18. ↑ KARACH: ‘Flawed’ entry test stirs controversy: KU’s MS, PhD programmes (18 November 2008). Dawn News last accessed 19 March 2010.
  19. ↑ EXCERPT: Dr. Najma Najam took serious notice of the contents of the test and identified that the contents have been taken (cut & paste) from another international test and a charge of plagiarism can be put on NTS. (10 July 2007). Higher Education Commission of Pakistan Internet website last accessed 19 March 2010.

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External links

  1. ↑ National Testing Services Jobs in Pakistan (NTS Jobs) > NTS Jobs