A profile of an evaluation and assessment agency: Saudi Arabia's Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC).

This paper presents a profile of the agency responsible for education evaluation and assessment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: the Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC). It draws on research conducted by the OECD as part of a three-year project to develop the technical capacity of ETEC and benchmark its policies and practices with those of similar agencies in OECD countries. The paper describes ETEC's mission and structure (Section 1); its remit, activities and instruments (Section 2); and the resources it has to fulfil its mandate (Section 3). In doing so, the paper traces the Commission's trajectory from its establishment to the present day. It aims to be of interest to education policymakers and researchers in OECD and partner countries, providing information on both the Saudi education system and evaluation and assessment agencies internationally - topics that have received relatively little attention in education literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]