Abbreviation NEAB Extinction 2000 Headquarters Manchester, UK | Formation 1992 Purpose Examination board | |
Region served England, Wales and Northern Ireland | ||
NEAB (Northern Examinations and Assessment Board) was an examination board serving England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1992 until 2000. It is now part of AQA.
NEAB was formed in 1992 by the merger of the Joint Matriculation Board (JMB) and the Northern Examining Association (NEA), which itself was an alliance of the Associated Lancashire Schools Examining Board, the Northern Regional Examinations Board, the North West Regional Examinations Board and the Yorkshire and Regional Examinations Board.
The board offered a variety of GCSE, A Level and other qualifications. Despite its name, schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were able to choose any of the examination boards and NEAB established itself as the biggest board in the UK.
In 1997, NEAB entered into an alliance with AEB/SEG and City & Guilds known as the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA). By 1999, examination papers were dual-branded with both the AQA and NEAB names on the papers and the 1999 examination certificates featured just the AQA name. In 2000, NEAB and AEB/SEG (but not City & Guilds) formally merged under the name AQA. As NEAB and AEB/SEG overlapped in the qualifications they offered, AQA retained two specifications for many subjects and do until this day, with schools able to choose between the two.