The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is a comprehensive assessment that monitors and compares reading comprehension achievements of Grade 4 students across various countries and regions. It tracks changes in reading performance over time and gathers background information to explore how home, school, and classroom contexts influence students’ learning gains.
PIRLS 2026 will be the sixth iteration of this assessment and marks 25 years of trend data collection, managed by the TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center at Boston College. The Educational Testing and Assessment Research Centre has been designated by the DSEDJ to implement PIRLS 2026 in Macao. ETARC will collaborate with schools to administer, process, and score the assessment and will also handle reporting and disseminating the findings for PIRLS 2026 in alignment with DSEDJ guidelines.
Currently, Mr. Chi Meng KONG, the Director of DSEDJ is the National Research Coordinator (NRC) of Macao-PIRLS 2026, while Prof. Kwok Cheung CHEUNG is the Principal Investigator (PI) and Prof. Pou Seong SIT is the co-PI.

To facilitate important advances in assessing reading comprehension at the fourth grade, all countries in PIRLS 2026 will participate digitally. The digital assessment system will facilitate the translation process and bring greater uniformity and quality control to data collection methods and procedures.

• Completes the transition to a fully digital assessment
• Uses an innovative interface where students can scroll through colorful texts and click on and answer questions
• Integrates the ePIRLS tasks based on simulated websites

• The digital assessment facilitates deep insights from process data

PIRLS 2026 UM team

The PIRLS 2026 Project Team, based at the Faculty of Education, University of Macau, is led by Prof. Kwok Cheung CHEUNG (PI) and Prof. Pou Seong SIT (Co-PI), who have extensive experiences in conducting PISA and TIMSS in Macao respectively.

For more details, please access https://www.iea.nl/studies/iea/pirls/2026