OPINION: NAPLAN results cause for concern

How could our students possibly be going backwards when all educational resources are moving forwards?

Major questions have been asked over the success of Naplan online, after results were unavailable to students today. Picture: NAPLAN

THIS year the NAPLAN writing results are at an all-time low.

The results are the lowest they have ever been since the writing test was first introduced back in 2011.

This is despite one in five students being able to complete their writing test online; on a computer or laptop.

This gives them the ability to work faster, and to review and edit their work in a more efficient manner.

Now these results were not separated (so I'm unsure as to how valid the data really is) and despite students who completed their test online performing better; overall it is still the worst Australian students have ever performed on the writing test.

This really does raise alarm bells for me, and I'm not even a parent or education worker.

Mainly because how could our students possibly be going backwards when all educational resources are moving forwards?

We are now fortunate enough to have immediate access to more educational resources than ever before. This is both through schools and online.

In school, students have access to more educational books and online resources. Teachers are trained with more resources, and at a higher standard.

Outside of what schools provide students also have access to more educational books than ever before through their community library (free of charge) as well as their household internet.

According to The Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2016-17, 87% of Australians aged 15 years and older were internet users. 98% of Australians aged 15 to 17 years were internet users. Nearly all (99%) of Australian households with children under the age of 15 used a mobile or smart phone with internet access.

And the internet provides more learning opportunities than ever before.

With all this information readily available, and with tertiary education for teachers improving every year, why are we now seeing in 2018 the lowest writing scores in NAPLAN?

I don't know or understand how this happened. However, I hope that by moving all NAPLAN testing online by 2020 the results may improve.

Hopefully the drop in our students writing results will give our education system the opportunity to address this problem.