About NEQMAP
The Network on Education Quality Monitoring in the Asia-Pacific (NEQMAP) serves to strengthen education systems to improve the quality of education in Asia-Pacific through collaborative efforts. The network will provide a forum for exchanging of expertise, experiences and lessons to improve the quality of learning in education systems of countries in Asia-Pacific, with the eventual aim of influencing policy reforms.
While the network will primarily focus on issues relating to student learning assessment to ensure alignment with curriculum and pedagogy, other closely related topics such as teachers will also be addressed.
Activities of the network would focus on knowledge sharing, research and capacity building among all stakeholders of the network and beyond.
The Inaugural Statement provides the rationale and context for setting up of the network.
The Terms of Reference provides more details on the structure and working modality of the network.
NEQMAP Steering Group
Based on the Terms of Reference for the Network, the Steering Group consists of five (5) members representing the various sub-regions of the Asia-Pacific (including Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific & South and West Asia).
The Steering Group is made up of recognized experts in the area of educational quality with experience in leading international/regional/national assessment programmes.
In the initial stage, the Steering Group will meet biannually to provide consultation for planning of the network. The Steering Group is elected by network members for a term of up two years, or up to the next network meeting if earlier. The first Steering Group was approved by the attendees of the inaugural meeting.
The members of the Steering Group of NEQMAP are as follows:
Ho Sui Chu Esther
Director of Hong Kong Centre for International Student Assessment and Project Manager of HKPISA (since 2000)
Esther was consultant for Macau-PISA in 2003, China-PISA Trail Study in 2006, Shanghai-PISA in 2009 and will be supporting China-PISA in 2015. A Fulbright scholar at Pennsylvania State University (2004) and John Hopkins University (2010), she is also a Research Associate of the project Education and Development in South China, a teaching consultant of the World Bank in the District Primary Educational Programme, India, and Principal Investigator of Home School Collaboration Project.
Her research interests include: parental involvement in children's education, home school community collaboration, school effectiveness and school reform, decentralization and school-based management, research methodology in education and multilevel analysis in educational research.
Ivan Nikitin
Executive Secretary of the Eurasian Association for Educational Assessment
Ivan additionally serves as Program Director of the Center for International Cooperation in Educational Development (Russia). He has participated in educational projects on international comparative analysis, organizational and curricular development of universities. He is an author of research papers on universities management and ranking, education financing and learning technologies issued by Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA).
In 2009-2011 Ivan Nikitin managed the projects implemented by RANEPA within Russian Federal Education Development Program. As a member of several RANEPA working groups he participated in state initiatives on education policy development, including preparing of Russian Education Development Strategy until 2015.
Jimin Cho
Director, Center for Global Cooperation
Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE)
Jimin started her professional career with KICE in 2002, taking charge of the National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA). She also worked in the division for College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) as the head of Department of Planning and Analysis.
Before her current position, she headed the Department of International Comparative Studies of Student Achievement where she coordinated the PISA and TIMSS projects. Her major experience has been in developing the framework for student assessments and particularly in scoring and reporting in-depth analyses of various major assessments in the Republic of Korea.
Michelle Belisle
Director of the Educational Quality and Assessment Programme (EQAP) of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC)
EQAP, formerly the South Pacific Board for Educational Assessment or SPBEA, was established in 1980 with a mandate to assist in regional and national educational assessment needs of its Pacific country members. Over time the emphasis of EQAP work has shifted from a pragmatic need for assessment, to assessment as a supporting and promoting agent for the improvement in the quality of education and in recent years EQAP has become a part of SPC.
Michelle joined EQAP in April 2015, after serving as the Director of Assessment in the Saskatchewan MInistry of Education in Canada. Michelle has been a lecturer in the undergraduate and graduate programs at the University of Regina in the areas of classroom assessment and leadership and assessment. She holds PhD in Education from the University of Regina in Canada, a MAEd in Curriculum and Technology from the University of Phoenix and a BEd in Secondary Mathematics from the University of Regina.
Suman Bhattacharjea
Director, Research at ASER Centre, New Delhi
Suman has extensive experience in the fields of education, gender, and women's rights. She has worked with government, private, non government and international organizations in several countries, including India, the United States, Pakistan and Mexico. She has taught courses on research design, gender and education and has authored or coauthored numerous articles and books in these areas.
Suman earned an undergraduate degree in Economics with Honors from Delhi University, and Masters and Doctoral degrees in Education from Harvard University.