The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will start up its first educational quality appraisal of Chinese students in north China's Shanxi Province.

OECD official Andreas Schleicher said that it was encouraging to see the economically backward province taking the lead in joining the organization's Project for International Students Appraisal (PISA).

He believed that in the near future, not only would the quality of education in Shanxi be raised to a higher level, but other provinces may benefit from the project and take it as a benchmark.

According to Schleicher, the purpose of the PISA is to find out a region's educational status and provide reliable references for local governments to map out educational policies.

The appraisal usually takes nine years during which three rounds of tests and data analyses are conducted among the sampled students.

Initiated in 1998, the PISA has been conducted in 45 countries and regions. Consisting of 30 member states, the OECD headquartered in Paris aims to provide a platform for in-depth international cooperation on social and economic issues.

(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2002)