HSC, NAPLAN fail as 66% of NSW public schools to miss targets

The majority of NSW public schools are on track to fail improvement targets for HSC and NAPLAN, with moves to shelve the targets labelled ‘delusional’.

Almost two thirds of all public schools are on track to fail to meet their NAPLAN and HSC improvement targets this year.

The poor progress of schools has prompted the government to simply pull the plug on its school improvement targets for the HSC this year due to “disruptions” despite the fact there were no Covid shutdowns this year.

In a briefing note to the NSW cabinet, written by the Education Department’s director of “capability, implementation and school excellence” Daniel French, it was conveyed the majority of schools would fail to meet their targets.

“The likelihood for achieving each system-level target for schools is currently rated as challenging or very challenging due to the gap to each target,” the briefing note said.

“Twelve per cent schools on trajectory to achieve attendance targets, 36 per cent schools on trajectory to achieve NAPLAN reading/numeracy targets.”

Those figures equate to 88 per cent of all schools failing to meet attendance targets despite no school lockdowns in 2022. And 64 per cent would fail to meet HSC targets while 62 per cent would fail to meet their NAPLAN targets despite millions of dollars being spent on Covid catch up tutoring.

“Pausing external validation and extending school targets and School Strategic Improvement Plans will allow opportunities for schools to effectively implement improvement initiatives,” the briefing note to NSW Cabinet said.

The decision to shelve targets this year comes after they were labelled by the World Socialist Website as “another major step toward implementing the pro-corporate education restructuring” when they were introduced.

Mr Latham said it was delusional to try and sugarcoat the problem. Picture: Gaye Gerard / NCA Newswire

The revelations that schools were performing so poorly this year came when Education Department bureaucrats fronted NSW Parliament’s Education Committee on Tuesday.

Committee chairman Mark Latham rebuked the bureaucrats for trying to sugarcoat the performance of NSW schools after a seperate report revealed thousands of Year 7 students were functionally illiterate.

“Isn’t it just delusional to keep saying progress is being made when we get all these indicators … saying the system is going backwards?,” he said.

Education Department boss Georgina Harrison clapped back, saying schools which had engaged with professional development around the HSC had seen a 17 per cent increase in their HSC results.

Ms Harrison said they were making progress. Picture: Gaye Gerard / NCA Newswire

“That’s what I’m referring to when I say we are making progress,” she said.

“We’re really clear the interventions we are making are showing results within them and we need to make sure that we remain focused on that and can sustain our delivery of them over time.”

But Mr Latham said NSW students had the fastest-falling results in the world and it was not doing illiterate students any favours sugarcoating it.

“On behalf of people who care about education in NSW, aren’t you just delusional to keep on talking about progress?” Mr Latham said.

“When are you going to face up to these tragic failures which hurt disadvantaged kids more than anyone else?”

NAPLAN results were delayed this year amid less participation in the tests. They are expected to be released next week while HSC results will come out in December.