The Educational Testing Service ( ETS) of the United States and
China's National Education Examination Authority (NEEA) signed a
seven-year contract Wednesday in the ETS headquarters in New Jersey
appointing NEEA as the exclusive provider of operational test
services for the Internet-based TOEFL and GRE exams in China.
At the signing ceremony ETS President and CEO Kurt Landgraf said
working with the NEEA was "important to ETS because they share our
values, beliefs and goals.” He noted that the strong, long-term
relationship between the two institutions was based "not only on
mutual understanding and unified objectives, but most importantly,
on trust and commitment."
Of his part, Dai Jiagan, President of the NEEA, said the
expanded relationship between the two institutions would offer
exciting new opportunities for Chinese students as the flexibility
of internet-based testing would help expand their access to world
renowned assessments at ETS test centers across China.
The NEEA will host a localized version of the ETS web
registration, payment, scheduling and on-line score reporting
systems. It would also recruit for and manage internet-based test
centers, providing local customer-technical support and managing-
administering the tests on behalf of ETS in China.
China is the only country to date to have a local representative
with fully shared administrative responsibilities for test delivery
over the new Internet-based platform. ETS expects to launch the new
internet-based TOEFL test in China this August.
ETS is a nonprofit institution devoted to advancing quality and
equality in education by providing fair and valid assessments,
research and related services. The NEEA is an institution under the
direct control of the Ministry of Education and tasked with the
supervision and administration of educational examinations in
China.
(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2006)