Parents urged to speak out after ‘concerning’ NAPLAN allegations

EDUCATION Minister Selena Uibo has encouraged parents who believe their children were asked to sit out of NAPLAN tests to contact the department

Education Minister Selena Uibo has encouraged parents who believe their children were asked to sit out of NAPLAN tests to contact the department. Picture: Justin Kennedy

EDUCATION Minister Selena Uibo has encouraged parents who believe their children were asked to sit out of NAPLAN tests to contact the department.

Ms Uibo said while no formal complaints had been made, she was concerned by suggestions teachers had asked some students to stay home on test day.

“The Department of Education has not received any formal complaints from families in relation to students being directed not to sit NAPLAN tests by schools,” Ms Uibo said.

“It concerns me to hear that families may have been provided with this advice and I strongly encourage them to contact the Department of Education as this is a concerning allegation.”

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Ms Uibo was speaking after the release of the latest NAPLAN data and said while the Territory continued to lag behind the rest of the country, outcomes were improving in four out of five testing categories.

“The Territory Labor Government is investing to create generational change, particularly in our remote areas, with our $1.1 billion remote housing program, and our focus on early childhood with the expansion of our Families as First Teachers program and Child and Family Centres,” she said.

“Making children education-ready from their first day of school is critical to boosting education outcomes.”

Australian Education Union NT president Jarvis Ryan said he had not heard of any students being asked to stay home on NAPLAN day but called for a “comprehensive review” of the test.

“In our view it’s become a monster that’s out of control,” he said. “What began as a diagnostic test has now become a high-stakes test that’s given far too much emphasis by governments, by media, and it should be put back in its box.”

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Mr Ryan said while the union wasn’t advocating the abolition of NAPLAN entirely, he cautioned parents against drawing too many conclusions from the data about individual students and schools.

“Certainly there shouldn’t be an emphasis on teaching in a way to improve outcomes on those tests because the tests are meant to be just a diagnostic mechanism for the system, they hold very little value around what they tell us about an individual student,” he said.

“Certainly there will be very few teachers who will be relying on NAPLAN data to determine what teaching strategy they use for an individual student.”

Originally published as Parents urged to speak out after ‘concerning’ NAPLAN allegations