The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2016 country representatives reviewed exhibits and draft international reports at the 8^th National Research Coordinators Meeting in Riga, Latvia, from 18 to 23 June 2017. The Acting Director of the Centre for Evaluation and Assessment (CEA) at the University of Pretoria, Ms Celeste Combrinck together with the National Research coordinator for PIRLS in South Africa, Prof Sarah Howie attended the meeting. The meeting was opened by IEA Executive Director Dirk Hastedt. Among delegates who attended were Andris Kangro of the University of Latvia, Līga Lejiņa (State Secretary of Latvia's Ministry of Education and Science),  Director Dirk Hastedt (IEA Executive),  Ina Mullis and Michael Martin (PIRLS Executive Directors).

The 2^nd Edition of the PIRLS 2016 Assessment Frame work provides the foundation for the three international assessments planned as part of IEA’s PIRLS 2016: PIRLS, PIRLS Literacy, and ePIRLS. PIRLS represents the international standard for reading comprehension at the fourth grade (Grade 5 learners in South Africa were tested in three languages, Afrikaans, English and IsiZulu). PIRLS Literacy, a less difficult version of PIRLS and tested the South African Grade 4 learners in all eleven languages, is designed to assess foundational reading skills that are prerequisites for success on PIRLS. New in 2016, ePIRLS is an innovative assessment of online reading that makes it possible for countries to understand how successful they are in preparing fourth grade students to read, comprehend, and interpret online information.

The aim of the meeting was to review drafts of the PIRLS 2016 international reports and discuss the national reports and press releases. The Data Processing Centre (DPC) also presented hands-on training with the data analysis programme IDB Analyzer. During the training session countries used their own data and learned to correctly analyse PIRLS data using the specially designed IDB Analyzer.