Each of the six participating countries achieved coding and data entry operations recently. National teams and operators applied standardised instructions and procedures for scoring students’ response into data sets template. The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) coordinated regional and national operations in collaboration with national teams and invited participants to ensure consistency within and across countries-languages versions. Experts supported intense national data entry workshops, verification and cleaning tasks for preparing initial survey’s data sets.

ACER’s experts are currently implementing a complex data process for setting sample weights, applying variance estimation and reporting methodologic outputs as another intermediate phase for preparing the final database. In the coming weeks up to mid-year, technical activities will focus on scaling cognitive and contextual responses for setting the new SEA-PLM regional scales, indicators and final database. During these important technical milestones, the national teams of SEA-PLM 2019 participating countries will continue to be closely consulted, informed and trained about the methodology. This particularly includes a regular annual National Team Regional workshop which is scheduled to be convened during July - August 2020.

SEA-PLM 2019 results reporting will start as soon as the final database is completed and documented, aiming to release the main regional report on 1 December 2020.

The SEA-PLM Regional Secretariat and experts acknowledge stakeholders for their continued technical and financial commitment and support on the SEA-PLM programme.