Punjab Study

Bahawalpur: 27 Jan: Islamia University Bahawalpur (IUB) has announced that The Higher Education Commission (HEC) in collaboration with the National Testing Service (NTS) Pakistan and the Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB) organized the 6th Training of Trainers (TOT) Workshop on “Effective Test Item Construction Techniques” at IUB Abbasia Campus. The workshop was attended by faculty members belonging to ten higher education institutions (HEIs) of Southern Punjab. The main objective of the workshop was to provide an opportunity to the faculty members to design and construct test items for effective examination and evaluation system. Prof. Dr. S. Sohail H. Naqvi, Executive Director, HEC and Prof. Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar, Vice Chancellor, IUB jointly inaugurated the four day workshop. The main topics under discussion during the workshop included test planning (identify learning outcomes; preparing a table of specifications; and choosing appropriate test item types); test preparation (constructing good test items; reviewing and editing items according to guidelines; arranging items and groupings; preparing directions for the test and individual items; deciding on method of scoring); and test analysis and revision (performing test/item analysis to determine difficulty, discrimination and reliability; deciding to retain, edit or discard items; revising the test etc). The workshop was conducted by renowned educationists including Dr. Farah Malik Government College University Lahore and Dr. Yusuf Sharjeel Iqra University Karachi while Prof. Dr. Sohail H. Naqvi Executive Director Higher Education Commission, Dr. Nasser Ali Khan Member HEC Islamabad, Prof. Dr. Masoom Yasinzai Vice Chancellor Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad and Prof. Dr. Muhammad Nizamuddin interacted with the participants and emphasized over them to play their pivotal role for bringing examination and assessment system at par with international standards. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar appreciated the efforts of Social Sciences Project team HEC and NTS to initiate innovative and useful academic programme targeting university faculty members from Southern Punjab. He also lauded the contribution of HEC for bringing about positive and revolutionary changes in higher educational sector of Pakistan. Prof. Dr. Riaz Hussain Qureshi, Adviser, Human Resource Development HEC, interacted with the participants through video conferencing from Islamabad. He was of the view that quality of higher education system cannot be improved without effective and efficient examination system. The faculty should take advantage of latest technology and techniques and should encourage critical and independent thinking among the students, he added. He reiterated HEC‘s commitment towards supporting various programmes aimed at promoting quality teaching and research in the HEIs of Pakistan. Prof. Dr. Najeeb Jamal, Dean Faculty of Arts was the chief guest in the concluding ceremony. At the end of the ceremony, the chief guest distributed certificates and souvenirs among the resource persons and participants of the workshop.
More information is on www.iub.edu.pk