The Department of Basic Education commissioned a series of the Standard-setting workshops on three assessments Early Learning National Assessment (ELNA), Systemic Evaluation Study and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). The workshops were coordinated and organized by the Centre for Evaluation and Assessment (CEA), University of Pretoria. The first part of the workshop was hosted at the Department of Basic Education offices. The second and the third parts were hosted at the Faculty of Education at the University of Pretoria by the Centre for Evaluation and Assessment (CEA).

The facilitators of the workshops were facilitated by the members of the PIRLS 2021 Technical Advisory Group (TAG), Prof Anil Kanjee and Dr Qetelo Moloi. The workshops focused on the national assessments, the Systemic Evaluation and the Early Learning National Assessment (ELNA), as well as the international assessment, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). The expected outcomes of the workshop were to know what standard setting is, identify different methods of standard setting, identify main features of Objective Standard Setting (OSS), differentiate between "Essential" and "Non-Essential" items in a test as well as to complete rating sheets of items in each test

The panelists were trained to rate the assessment items in the eleven official languages. The panelists rated the Grade three, Grade six and Grade nine language items for the Systemic Evaluation, Grade three items for ELNA, as well as the Grade four and Grade six items for PIRLS.