{"id":1140982,"date":"2026-01-04T16:00:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T11:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.app.com.pk\/?p=1140982"},"modified":"2026-01-04T16:00:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T11:00:02","slug":"education-ministry-expands-nat-to-private-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/2026\/01\/04\/education-ministry-expands-nat-to-private-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Education Ministry expands NAT to private sector"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>ISLAMABAD, Jan 04 (APP):Private schools across the country are set to be included in the National Achievement Test (NAT) for the first time in 2026, following a decision by the Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The move broadens the scope of the NAT, which has traditionally covered public sector institutions, and aims to provide a more comprehensive picture of student performance nationwide.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In addition to the expanded NAT, the Ministry will launch Pakistan\u2019s first-ever National Foundational Learning Assessment to gauge early learning outcomes at the national level.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Briefing the media, Federal Secretary for Education Nadeem Mahbub stated that the Ministry has aligned the national assessment framework with Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG-4) indicators. This alignment aims to generate credible and comparable evidence on learning quality to fulfill international reporting commitments.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Mahbub said the National Achievement Test will be administered at Grades 5 and 8, covering schools across all provinces and regions. He noted that the inclusion of private institutions will ensure a more comprehensive and representative picture of student learning outcomes nationwide.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Over 20,000 students will be assessed under the NAT 2026 and the National Foundational Learning Study through a scientific sampling process to ensure validity.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Highlighting the context, the Secretary noted that the NAT 2023 results had revealed a &#8220;serious learning crisis,&#8221; prompting the Prime Minister to declare an Education Emergency. &#8220;It is the shared responsibility of federal and provincial governments to bring out-of-school children back and address their learning needs,&#8221; he added.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The initiative will be implemented by the Pakistan Institute of Education (PIE) with technical support from the American Institutes for Research (AIR).<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD, Jan 04 (APP):Private schools across the country are set to be included in the National Achievement Test (NAT) for the first time in 2026, following a decision by the Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training. The move broadens the scope of the NAT, which has traditionally covered public sector institutions, and aims to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1140991,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","_speechable_audio":"","_speechable_word_timings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1348,1349,1350,1351],"post_template":[],"top_category":[],"class_list":["post-1140982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-education-ministry","tag-federal-ministry-of-education-and-professional-training","tag-national-achievement-test-nat","tag-private-sector","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1140982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1140991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1140982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1140982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1140982"},{"taxonomy":"post_template","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_template?post=1140982"},{"taxonomy":"top_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/top_category?post=1140982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}