NAPLAN results 2025: Australian students are flatlining but which state has the best scores?

The latest national report card highlights an alarming trend across the nation. See how your state ranks against the rest – and how kids’ results compare to their last test.

The 2025 NAPLAN results show practically no improvement on previous years, with grammar results at the bottom of the class.

Australian students’ NAPLAN results have flatlined over the past three years, with one in three pupils – more than 1.5 million kids – still struggling to read, write and do maths.

Overall, Victoria leads the other states in nine out of 20 subject and year level categories, with NSW ahead in six and the Australian Capital Territory ahead in five.

However, student results in 2025 have barely shifted compared to 2024 or 2023, with experts saying mental health concerns and pressures on the system are having a dire impact.

Grammar results are the lowest of all, with four out of 10 kids in years 3 and 9 unable to use basic punctuation such as commas, full stops and quotation marks.

Australian Catholic University Associate Professor Steven Lewis said “anxiety, depression and mental health woes are all taking a toll on schools – both on students and staff”.

“It’s been business as usual, with tests like NAPLAN assumed to be a driver of higher results. But there has been no significant injection of funds or changes in how things are done and so there has been no progress,” he said.

The highest average NAPLAN subject nationally was achieved in Victoria, with students posting an impressive 587 score in year 9 writing.

Victorian Education Minister Ben Carroll put his state’s performance down to a focus on explicit instruction, including phonics and early years literacy and numeracy checks.

He praised the “thousands of teachers working hard every day to provide students with the best education”.

Overall, girls are continuing to outperform boys in reading while boys are better in numeracy, and metropolitan students score better than students in remote areas.

For the first time since performance bands were changed three years ago, a comparison of student progress over time is possible.

Nationally, students in year 3 in 2023, who are now in year 5, improved more than 80 points in reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation and numeracy, posting average scores around 490 in 2025.

However, those in year 5 in 2023, who are now in year 7, improved no more than 55 points to an average of 538 points in 2025.

The gains were even slower for those in year 7 in 2023 who are now in year 9, who improved just 20 points in grammar and punctuation to an average of 559 points in 2025.

Grammar and punctuation are key problem areas, with half or nearly half of students in years 3 and 9 not meeting standards in Queensland, SA and Tasmania.

In the Northern Territory, students slipped in 16 out of 20 subjects and year levels, with more than 60 per cent of students in many areas needing additional support or still developing their skills. This compares to one in 10 on average across Australia.

Associate Professor Marian Vidal-Fernandez from the University of Sydney said there were many reasons for the inequitable results among students from different areas and backgrounds.

“These include classroom management, neuro-diversity, shortages of teachers and the impact of the administrative burden on educators,” she said.

Professor Vidal-Fernandez also said Covid could still be playing a role, with older students in particular still feeling the impact of lockdowns.

Centre for Independent Studies education expert Glenn Fahey says school results have stalled amid “high-spend stagnation”.

Associate Professor Steven Lewis from Australian Catholic University says mental health is having an impact on students.

Glenn Fahey, director of education at the Centre for Independent Studies, said the results showed the education system was “stalled in a state of high-spend stagnation” despite public funding of education of $90bn this year.

Stephen Gniel, chief executive of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), the organisation that runs NAPLAN, admitted the latest results “also continue to highlight areas that need collective attention, such as supporting students from our regional and remote areas, those from a disadvantaged background, and Indigenous students”.

Education Minister Jason Clare Quotes said the “improvements in literacy and numeracy are good news, but there’s more work to do”.

“That’s what the new agreements we’ve now signed with every state and territory are all about. These agreements fix the funding of our public schools,” he said.

Liberal education spokesman Jonno Duniam said “more must be done to get these results to where they need to be”.

Originally published as NAPLAN results 2025: Australian students are flatlining but which state has the best scores?