The Ministry of Education has introduced a new standardized proficiency test for public school students in grades 4 to 11, aimed at measuring core skills in Arabic, mathematics, and English.
The first phase will cover 26,000 students and will be administered at the start of the first semester and again at the end of the third semester, enabling data-driven interventions to address learning gaps, officials said.
Under the new framework, assessment distribution will vary across grade levels. For grades 1–2, evaluations will remain school-based, while grade 3 will have an even split between school-based and centralized assessments. In cycles 2 and 3, centralized testing will account for 50 percent and 60 percent of assessments, respectively, with additional weight given to formative and activity-based evaluations.
The Ministry also announced the second phase of the Project-Based Learning and Assessment (PBLA) system, now expanded to all second-cycle students in public and private schools, following its successful implementation in 350 schools.
Meanwhile, centralized exams at the end of the second semester have been scrapped in favor of summative school-based assessments, with centralized testing to continue only in the first and third semesters.
Officials said the updated system is designed to improve teaching quality, diversify evaluation tools, promote student well-being, and provide a clearer picture of students’ academic performance.
