Children at two Sydney schools have been forced to resit their NAPLAN writing exams due to a technical issue which meant they were able to access predictive text and spellcheck.
A teacher at Kambala in Rose Bay and students at Waverley realised the Apple feature was turned on when they completed the writing component of the test last week.
Students in year 5 at Waverley College will resit their NAPLAN writing test.Credit: Louise Kennerley
In addition to checking spelling and completing words, Apple says the predictive text feature also uses artificial intelligence to create a text response suited to the writing style of its user.
A spokesman for Waverley College said it told the NSW Education Standards Authority about the problem.
“The issue involved predictive text being inadvertently enabled during the test, potentially affecting our students’ submissions,” he said.
Students were told to retake the writing test with a new prompt. “Unfortunately, when attempting to administer the rescheduled test the following day, despite multiple requests, we did not receive the necessary student profile codes that would allow our students to access the test,” he said. They sat the test on Monday.
“We are aware that Waverley College is not the only school to have experienced these technical difficulties. Some schools may be unaware that predictive text features were enabled during their students’ assessments, and we hope that all students are evaluated under fair and consistent conditions.”
Kambala said a technical glitch meant that students were able to use the predictive text but a teacher alerted the authorities straight away.Credit: Louise Kennerley
A Kambala spokeswoman said a teacher identified the issue and alerted NESA and the Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority.
“I can confirm that Kambala had a predictive text issue with the year 5 NAPLAN writing test last Wednesday,” she said.
“This issue was limited to year 5 only and did not appear to affect years 7 or 9, noting that year 3 handwrite their NAPLAN writing response.”
An ACARA spokesman said there had been no widespread issues with the NAPLAN writing tests in 2025 and more than 880,000 online writing tests had been submitted from across the country in the first four days of testing.
“Schools are supported to implement a number of measures prior to testing beginning to maintain the integrity of the NAPLAN test. This includes being provided with instructions to disable predictive text on devices,” the spokesman said.
At Randwick High, an “administrative error” meant students sat literacy and numeracy exams in a different order from that originally scheduled this year, a NSW Department of Education spokesperson said. “The school apologises for any inconvenience caused,” the spokesperson said.
A NESA spokeswoman said schools were provided with ACARA’s instructions to disable predictive text on some devices.
“All schools were also reminded of the need to disable predictive text on the second day of testing,” she said.
“In NESA’s experience, NSW schools are proactive in self-reporting any issues that arise during testing, and we ask that schools continue to do so throughout the testing period. We have worked closely with the small number of schools who have reported this issue to us.”
Last year, 1.2 million students took NAPLAN tests and there was one case of cheating.
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