Riyadh (UNA) – The King Salman Global Academy for the Arabic Language is conducting the “Hamza” academic test to measure Arabic language proficiency, in partnership with the Education and Training Evaluation Commission “Qiyas”, in 18 Saudi universities and educational centers, in a step that embodies the expansion of the scope of the test’s application, and enhances the presence of standard language assessment tools in educational institutions, and measures the Arabic language proficiency of university students according to an accurate standard model, which contributes to developing their language skills, and supports the quality of higher education outputs; thus enhancing the efficiency of language performance in academic environments.
The Secretary-General of the Academy, Professor Dr. Abdullah bin Saleh Al-Washmi, explained that the application of the test in cooperation with this number of universities comes as an extension of the Academy’s efforts to develop tools for measuring linguistic competencies and enhance their reliability in accordance with approved scientific standards, noting that the Academy is working to institutionalize linguistic tests and expand the scope of their application in a way that serves different educational groups and promotes the use of the Arabic language in academic and professional contexts.
The test is conducted in person at computerized centers in the participating universities to measure the four main skills: “listening, reading, writing, and speaking”, with a total of 75 items distributed over 150 minutes, according to applied mechanisms that ensure the accuracy of the measurement and the consistency of its results.
A number of universities are participating in the application of the test, namely: King Abdulaziz University, Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University, Umm Al-Qura University, King Faisal University, Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University, Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman University, King Khalid University, Qassim University, Tabuk University, Hail University, Jazan University, Najran University, Al-Jouf University, Northern Border University, Bisha University, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Hafr Al-Batin University, in addition to the Abjad Center.
The “Hamza” academic test is one of the strategic projects that contribute to building a national system for measuring linguistic competencies, which enhances the status of the Arabic language in educational systems and raises the efficiency of academic practices related to it at the local and international levels, in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030.
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