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.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, ETS President and CEO Kurt Landgraf said working with the NEEA is "important to ETS because they share our values, beliefs and goals," noting that the strong long-term relationship between the two institutions is based "not only on mutual understanding and unified objectives, but most importantly, on trust and commitment."

On his part, Dai Jiagan, President of the NEEA, said the expanded relationship between the two institutions will offer exciting new opportunities for Chinese students, as the flexibility of internet-based testing will help expand their access to ETS's world renowned assessments at test centers across China.

The NEEA will host a localized version of ETS's web registration, payment, scheduling system and on-line score reporting system. It will also recruit and manage internet-based test centers, providing local customer and technical support, managing and administering the tests on behalf of ETS in China.

China is the only country to date that represents 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 service. The NEEA is an institution directly under the supervision of the Ministry of Education tasked with the supervision and administration of educational examinations in China.

Source: Xinhua