FIELD trials for the Pacific's largest regional education assessment, the Pacific Islands Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (PILNA), begins in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands on September 8. The two-day research trial is in preparation for the fourth cycle of PILNA. The trials in the confirmed 13 countries will be conducted through a virtual platform. These follow the training of each country's PILNA national coordinators last month. After the training, these coordinators are required to train their team of school coordinators, who then train their respective test supervisors. These three roles, largely undertaken by education officers and serving teachers, are critical to effectively administering the PILNA assessments. PILNA, which was first administered in 2012, is administered at the Year 4 and Year 6 levels to gain a snapshot of students' fundamental skills of literacy and numeracy after four and six years of formal education. This was main thrust of the assessment when it was first conceived. However, by the third iteration in 2018, the assessment has proven to be of even greater value after having incorporated contextual questionnaires for students, teachers and school leaders.
You may access more details on the PILNA 2018 report HERE.