NAPLAN 2025: NSW results reveal no improvements for Year 3 kids despite taxpayer billions

The gap between top performers and struggling students has widened in NSW schools. See how our kids fared in the 2025 NAPLAN exams.

Year 3 students in NSW have recorded lower scores in their latest NAPLAN exams than their peers did two years prior, and despite billions of additional dollars flowing into the education system, the gap between the top performers and those struggling most has grown.

Statewide results released by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) for the 2025 standardised testing regime show in NSW, average scores have been virtually unchanged in each grade since 2023.

Year 3s received marginally lower average scores in reading, writing, grammar and punctuation and numeracy than those recorded in 2023 by students who are now in Year 5.

The proportion of Year 3s who are far below the national benchmark for their age and ‘need additional support’ has also increased from 8.3 per cent in 2023 to 9.2 per cent in 2025.

This year marks the first time academics, educational leaders and policymakers have been able to track the same group of students’ progress over time, since more than a decade’s worth of data was ‘reset’ in 2023.

Between Year 3 and Year 5 the proportion of students in the ‘needs additional support’ category fell slightly, while the number ‘exceeding’ standards increased by 2.6 percentage points.

However in high school the gap has widened, with more students moving into the bottom tier between Year 7 and Year 9, and fewer entering the highest proficiency level.

Research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) Trisha Jha said the results “show the need for further support for evidence-based practices like explicit teaching for all students, and early screening and intervention tools particularly for our younger students”.

CIS education director Glenn Fahey said the “supercharged” public funding for schools has failed to produce results.

“Despite encouraging glimpses, the overwhelming evidence is of an education system stuck in neutral — when it needs to be revving up,” he said.

Centre for Independent Studies education director Glenn Fahey. Picture: Supplied

Combined federal and state spending on NSW schools increased from $24.8 billion in the 2020-21 financial year to $27.7 billion in 2022-23, according to the Productivity Commission.

The Albanese government’s long-sought Better and Fairer Schools agreement is budgeted to deliver $9.6 billion in recurrent funding for NSW schools this financial year, increasing to $10.9 billion in 2028-29.

“If we want better results, we need better teaching. That’s where the impact lies — not in the budget papers,” Mr Fahey said.

The NSW Teachers Federation deputy president Amber Flohm argued schools and students are “still playing catch-up” from the previous government.

“A student in Year 3 or Year 5 in 2025 has only been to school during significant periods of teacher shortage, and serious questions must be asked of those Liberal and National politicians who starved our public schools of resources for over a decade,” she said.

Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Children associate investigator Marian Vidal-Fernandez cautioned against comparing performance across cohorts, noting that children who are now in Year 3 and those now in Year 5 “suffered Covid in different circumstances”.

“The pandemic had differential impacts by socioeconomic status,” she said.

“If you have parents who are highly educated and could take some time off to take care of you, then that was fantastic, but if you have parents who are struggling to make ends meet and there is tension in the house, you’re definitely worse off being at home.”

The starkest declines were among kids whose parents never finished high school; their average scores in Year 3 Grammar and Punctuation for instance fell from 352 points in 2023, to 325 points this year.

Campsie Public School in Sydney’s multicultural southwest has lifted its Year 3 students’ results this year, with 8 per cent fewer students needing additional support after co-principals Berlinda Cook and Matthew Jones doubled down on the state-funded small group reading program.

Year 5 students at Campsie Public School Roush Kc, Vasili Kavvalos, Khalid Abdoun and Nathan Butarbutar. Picture: Rohan Kelly

“We’ve been very strategic in our use of flexible funding, and I think we’re almost tripled this government’s investment in small group tuition,” Mr Jones said.

Campsie students consistently score highly in numeracy, but now the school is relying on parents to support their kids’ growth at home – especially in literacy, where parents who speak English as a second language often feel less confident themselves.

“We’re almost at capacity with the in-school things that we can influence, but we know that we can make even greater gains for our students in partnership with parents,” Ms Cook said.

Campsie Public School co-principals Matthew Jones and Berlinda Cooke have doubled down on the state-funded small group reading program. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Acting Education Minister Courtney Houssos said students, families and teachers “should feel proud” of the overall results, especially those in the state’s north who completed the NAPLAN tests in the midst of extreme weather.

“Where there are gaps, we are focused on supporting schools and teachers to close them,” she said.