NTS at a glance
National Testing Service – Pakistan (NTS) is an independent, self-sustaining and autonomous testing organization that specializes in administering academic performance evaluation tests. NTS follows a policy of adhering to international testingstandards, quality management and zero tolerance in administering tests and assessments.
The NTS was established in Pakistan in 2002 in response to a need expressed in the National Education Policy and Information Technology Policy of the Government of Pakistanfor a testing service.Since its establishment, NTS has been painstakingly working to improve its systems and procedures. It is similar in nature to the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the United States and is a preferred associate in Pakistan.
Legal status of NTS
NTS is a non-profit company registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) under section 42 of the Companies Ordinance 1984, limited by guarantee, i.e., not having a share capital. It is governed by its Board of Directors who are nominees of the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology.
What does NTS do?
NTSconducts tests and assessments for admissions, scholarships, and recruitment and promotion purposes. NTS offers two main types of tests, the National Aptitude Test (NAT) and the Graduate Assessment Test (GAT) as well as offering customized testing services.
Having completed 15 successful years, NTS is now playing a vital role in promoting a culture of merit and quality education for the public at large. NTS ensures strict security arrangements and has been striving for excellence besides ensuring qualitystandards, efficiency, reliability, accuracy and above all the credibility of the entire system in a transparent manner.
Pertinently, NTS tests and assessments are now a pre-requisite for admission to many prime, public as well as private sector, engineering and medicalcolleges, universities and institutions. In addition to this NTS also conducts assessment tests for recruitment in public and private sector organizations.
What does NTS offer to its clients?
Highly qualified NTS professionals offer consulting services, teachers’ trainings, capacity building, technical assistance and other solutions to various private sector institutions, corporate entities and government organizations throughout Pakistan.
Institutional Capacity and Network
NTS has 250 full time employees and ten thousand highly trained personnel for test proctoring purpose.Moreover, nearly 3,000 individuals, from prestigious universities and reput (i)- Executive Committee (EC): The EC comprises of all head of departments (HODs) and nominees that look after operational affairs of the institution.
(ii)- Academic Committee (AC):It consists of eminent University professors who are solely responsible for developing the curricula, along with regulating and promoting consistent testing.
(iii)- Subject Committee (SC): SC lays down proper standards of curriculum, so as to regulate and promote the standards for testing in a specific subject. Numerous test item developers also work under this committee.
(iv)- MCQ Contributors Committee (MCQCC): it consists of educational experts from primary to professional level faculty members from colleges and universities who help in building authentic test item bank.
(v)- Peer Review Committee (PRC): It consists of University professors, solely responsible for quality assurance of test contents and test items.
In an exclusive chat with editor Daily Parliament Times, Dr. Sherzada Khan while highlighting the aims and objectives of the organization said that NTS was setup with the intention to facilitate in producing an educated and market competitive human resource in the country in addition to building and promoting standards in educational and professional testing and assessment.
Dr. Khan said that NTS is conducting tests in a transparent manner to assess the competency of candidates for admission, scholarship and recruitment purposes, keeping in view international standards. He further said that NTS undertakes research on educational, professional and testing systems to identify the prevailing academic and operational gaps in the system as one of the key objectives of the organization is to produce and disseminate information and research on education and profession development standards. Referring to the 3rd important objective of the organization he said that NTS is also working on building capacities of professional individuals as well as the institutions through proper testing and assessment system.
Regarding the core values followed by NTS, he said, “NTS strives for excellence in all its endeavors to improve its systems and procedures and tries to address issues related to the traditional testing services.” He further said that NTS basically believes in respect, integrity, credibility and excellence.
About the standards followed by NTS, he said, “transparency, merit, fairness and reliability are the key values followed by the NTS.” He was of the view that NTS follows a zero tolerance policy in administering tests and assessments thereby facilitating standardized selection and authentic measurement of tests takers knowledge and skills.
NTS Achievements
he CEO NTS, Dr. Sherzada Khan said that the organization has so far conducted more than 6,000 tests and assessments in various disciplines for educational assessment, recruitment and promotion. He said that more than 13 million candidates from reputable associate and partner institutions and organizations have appeared in the NTS tests since its inception
He was of the view that the tests conducted under the aegis of NTS were being recognized and accepted both nationally and internationally. Dr. Khan said that NTS tests have enabled thousands of Pakistani students to pursue post-graduate to PhD programs on scholarships in universities in Australia, Canada, China, Europe, UK, France and USA. He said that final selections were made by Higher Education Commission.
NTS – Vision 2020
Divulging the long term plans of NTS, Dr. Khan said that NTS had laid down a 10-year future plan, titled Vision 2020, which was developedbased on NTS’ past experiences and market demands. He said that the basic objective was to reach out to 10 million direct beneficiaries by year 2020.
Regarding other intended goals, he said that NTS under Vision 2020 is working to increase the number of test item contributors up to 5,000. NTS he said has also set a target of training 10,000 staff and partners in various disciplines and skills in the next few years. Further, enhancement of partners/associates upto 1,000 organizations and institutions within the country was one of its top priorities.
Profile
Air Commodore (R) Dr. Sherzada Khan is the chief executive officer of NTS. Dr. Khan, throughout his career in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), has served on various command and field assignments mainly involved in maintenance, teaching and R&D activities. His last assignment in the PAF was as Managing Director of the Kamra Avionics and Radar Factory at PAC Kamra. He served in this position for four and half years and was responsible for the establishment of the infrastructure for the production and testing facilities for the avionics system employed in the JF-17 Thunder aircraft. Based on his professional excellence and devotion to service he was awarded the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (Military) by the Government of Pakistan.After retirement from the PAF in 2009, Dr. Sherzada Khan served as Director of the Attock Campus of the COMSATS Institution of Information Technology (CIIT), where he worked on enhancing its infrastructure, laboratories, sport facilities, library, etc. He was instrumental in inducting a highly qualified faculty, which resulted in an increase in academic programs and student enrolment.
