NAPLAN results show school literacy and numeracy scores flatlining

PUPILS have made no major gains in literacy and numeracy since 2012, despite a government push to make Victoria the “Education State”, the latest NAPLAN results show. TAKE THE TEST

Minister for Education James Merlino. Picture: Chris Eastman

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PUPILS have made no major gains in literacy and numeracy since 2012, despite a government push to make Victoria the “Education State”.

The latest National Assessment Program — Literacy And Numeracy results, out on Wednesday, showed no substantial imp­rovement in any area in the past year — a picture that was mirrored nationwide.

Despite a struggle to imp­rove writing in year 9, preliminary data showed a drop in average scores from 2011.

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority chief executive Robert Randall.

But scores were better for years 3 and 5 reading, year 3 grammar and punctuation, and year 5 numeracy, when compared with 2008. Writing scores for both years 3 and 5 in Victoria were the nation’s best.

Australian Curriculum Ass­essment and Reporting Authority figures show year 3 writing was noticeably better than it was five years ago.

Victoria had the nation’s largest proportion of year 5 pupils who reached or passed the minimum standard in writing this year, and was equal first with NSW for spelling.

But ACARA chief executive Robert Randall was concerned that results were flatlining.

“Plateauing results are not what we should expect or ­assume. Literacy and numeracy needs to improve,” he said.

He urged educators and parents to use schools making progress as role models.

Federal Minister Education and Training Simon Birmingham said nationally NAPLAN results had reached a plateau in performance.

“Victoria has historically been a high performing state and continues to uphold its end of the bargain,” he told 3AW.

“Nationally we need to have a look at why its performance is plateauing and especially why it is we’re not getting the type of gains we’d hope to receive when we are putting in record sums of funding, that have grown by more than 23 per cent at a federal level over the last few years.”

Senator Birmingham said Australia was well placed compared to other schools worldwide.

“Our teachers, our schools and our systems do a pretty good job by Australian kids to set them up for success in life, but we should always be striving to do better,” he said.

“We do face increased competition in terms of educational success around the world and that’s why we need to focus on things that make a difference.”

Senator Birmingham said the focus should be on measures that had been shown to get results.

“Today’s results once again show despite significant funding growth we are not getting sufficient ­improvements,” he said.

Education Minister James Merlino said it was pleasing that Victoria continued to be one of the highest-performing states, and applauded teachers’ and principals’ hard work.

“But there’s room for imp­rovement, which is why we’ve set targets around reading, maths, resilience, physical act­ivity, creativity and reducing the impact of disadvantage.”

Pupils’ reports will be sent to schools from August 15.

Percentage of students who achieved at or above the national minimum standard.

With Richard Jones and Lewis Allman

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