HYDERABAD, Sept 18: The Sindh education department has initiated a project to develop an assessment system to improve quality of elementary education.

This was said by the Sindh director, Bureau of Curriculum and Extension Wing, Dr Mehboob Ali Shaikh, while talking to Dawn here on Wednesday.

He said this project would strengthen teachers’ education institutions in the province by establishing “quality assessment cell (QAC)” in each such institution by the end of the current year.

He said the project was designed to improve the quality of teaching and learning at elementary level and it would also provide an input of test in the elementary system from class I to class VIII in all subjects.

Dr Shaikh said test samples were developed on contents of textbooks of the Sindh Textbook Board.

Due to regular use of these test items, he said, students would become confident and ready to appear in any test or competition.

Elaborating further, Dr Shaikh pointed out these tests might be used to diagnose weaknesses of students in different subjects, improvement of students, study of curricula and evaluation of the teaching-learning process.

He said the testing of students through this system would also reflect the competency of teachers in their subjects.

He was of the opinion provincial and district governments could put more emphasis on the training of those subjects where performance of students needed improvement.

Dr Shaikh informed final versions of sample test questions were being supplied to every primary and secondary school in the province and expressed the hope it would help researchers, teachers and managers working in the elementary education system.

He was confident these tests would be instrumental in getting optimum results from the present school system and would ensure the quality of education.