NEAB was formed in 1992 by the merger five of examination boards: • The
Joint Matriculation Board • The
Associated Lancashire Schools Examining Board • The
Northern Regional Examinations Board • The
North West Regional Examinations Board • The
Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Examinations Board (which itself was formed by the merger of
The West Yorkshire and Lindsey Regional Examining Board and
Yorkshire Regional Examinations Board in 1982) Previously, these exam boards had been in a consortium together, the
Northern Examining Association, to provide
GCSEs, while the Joint Matriculation Board also offered
A Levels independently. Merging allowed a single body to take on all these roles. The chief executive of NEAB for the majority of its existence was
Kathleen Tattersall, who had previously led the Joint Matriculation Board. Schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were able to choose any of the examination boards for award their qualifications 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). The 1998 examination certificates featured just the AQA name. By 1999, examination papers were dual-branded with both the AQA and NEAB names. 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. ==References==