Victorian students achieve strongest NAPLAN results ever, topping the country in nine categories

Victorian students have achieved their strongest NAPLAN results ever, despite 300,000 students still struggling to use punctuation including commas and full stops.

Victorian kids achieved the highest or second highest average score in 18 categories. Picture: David Caird

Victorian students have achieved their strongest NAPLAN results ever, despite the state coming in second best to their interstate counterparts in nine out of 20 categories.

More than 1.3 million students nationally in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sat the tests in March, with two in three students at the “strong” or “exceeding” proficiency level for their reading, numeracy and writing skills.

Victorian kids achieved the highest or second highest average score in 18 categories, up from 11 last year and 16 in 2023, the results on Wednesday show.

Students also achieved higher scores in 17 categories compared to last year, with those in Years 7 and 9 seeing improvements across the board.

In a similar pattern to last year, most students had difficulty with grammar and punctuation, with more than a third – or 300,000 pupils – struggling to correctly put commas, full stops and quotation marks in sentences.

Year 9 students had the highest portion of pupils who needed support or were developing skills in this subject area, with two in five not having a strong understanding.

This was followed by 39 per cent of Year 3 students who also misused grammar and punctuation in their test.

Meanwhile, a quarter of Victorian students were still grappling with basic numeracy skills, with Year 9 students having the most difficulty doing basic numeric calculations out of all the year levels that sat NAPLAN this year.

Despite improvement needed in these areas, Education Minister Ben Carroll said Victoria’s status as the “education state” still stands, with these “nation-leading results” proof of that.

“Congratulations to all our dedicated students, teachers, principals, parents and carers on these outstanding results,” he said.

“Our investments are clearly paying off – delivering modern classrooms, great teachers and more individual support, helping make sure students have every opportunity to succeed.”

He hoped the results would attract teachers to the sector and had “no doubt” other states would be looking to Victoria.

“These are the best results on record in Victoria,” he said.

“I spoke to (federal education minister) Jason Clare yesterday ... I think these results will have other jurisdictions around Australia looking to what Victoria is doing.”

While he thanked teachers for the “outstanding results” he stopped short of saying a decent pay rise was on the way for the state’s educators.

“We are in the very, very first weeks ... of negotiating (an EBA),” he said.

One school which reported strong growth in results was Romsey Primary School. Picture: David Caird

Opposition education spokesperson Jess Wilson said she hoped the minister had a “bigger plan than a hope and a prayer” to attract teachers to the industry.

“We have a teacher shortage crisis in this state and we are seeing teachers leave the profession in droves,” she said.

Ms Wilson said the figures were “no cause for celebration” as “tens of thousands of students are failing to meet basic proficiency standards”.

“Labor’s mismanagement is resulting in too many Victorian students being left behind and finishing their education journey without the skills they need to reach their full potential,” she said.

Meanwhile, Australian Education Union Victorian Branch president Justin Mullaly said underfunding was driving poor student outcomes at state schools.

“The Premier and Education Minister are talking about these results, while cutting $2.4 billion in funding from Victoria’s public schools, and overseeing a system in which public school teachers work an average 12 unpaid overtime hours every week,” he said.

Following changes in 2023 to the performance bands used to assess students, progress of the same cohort can now be observed.

The biggest cohort gain in Victoria was in grammar and punctuation for students who completed Year 3 in 2025 and are completing Year 5 this year, with an increase of 87.8 points in their overall average for the subject.

New South Wales and the ACT were Victoria’s biggest competitors, with the state and territory taking the top spot away from Victoria in nine areas including Year 5 reading and Year 7 numeracy.

As for the battle of the sexes, generally girls performed marginally higher in literacy, while boys achieved greater scores in numeracy.

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority chief Stephen Gniel said it was encouraging to see higher NAPLAN scores on average as well as the national participation rates rebound.

One school which reported strong growth in results was Romsey Primary School, with principal Melanie Stewart crediting her hard working teachers and students and use of structured, evidence-based learning techniques for the school’s success.

“Our data shows a significant decrease in the percentage of students in the additional support or developing proficiency, alongside a noticeable increase in the number of students performing in the ‘strong’ and ‘exceeding’ categories,” she said.

“These results reflect the targeted teaching strategies and ongoing support provided across the school, as well as the consistent efforts of our students and staff.”

Originally published as Victorian students achieve strongest NAPLAN results ever, topping the country in nine categories