Why do we need these new tests?

Qatar has defined new curriculum standards for its schools in Arabic, English as a Foreign Language, Mathematics, and Science and therefore a new test was developed in order to begin measuring how well students are progressing towards meeting those standards. The new tests will provide a national picture of student and school performance against the standards, and will provide feedback to schools, teachers, and students on areas of student strengths and weakness that will help improve instruction. In addition, parents can use the QCEA information alongside other information from school report cards to help them choose the school that they feel will be best for each of their children.