NAPLAN to go online for the first time in the NT

STUDENTS from 32 schools across the Territory will today for the first time sit the NAPLAN testing online

STUDENTS from 32 schools across the Territory will today for the first time sit the NAPLAN testing online.

It’s the first time in the Territory students have been able to complete the test on laptops.

Nakara Primary is one of the schools participating with the Year 5 cohort of 75 students completing the test online.

Year 5 student Annise McNair said she was looking forward to the writing component of NAPLAN.

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She said the chance to write her work on a laptop would make things easier.

“I think that will make it easier with writing, I can write quickly with typing,” she said.

Nakara Primary principal Britany Roestenberg said it had been an interesting morning for the Year 3 and 5 students sitting the test.

“For us it’s just another day and it’s a really good opportunity for them (the students) to demonstrate their learning at a point in time,” Ms Roestenberg said.

“They’re looking forward to doing their best and giving it a go.”

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In the lead to the two-day test, student had undergone practise testing on the laptops to help smooth out any issues.

“A lot of children are really looking forward to the opportunity, some of them find writing quite challenging and their rubbing out and correcting and things … they are able to correct their mistakes,” she said.

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She said the had enough laptops and headphones for the students but had had to purchase extra mouses.

Education Minister Selena Uibo said the department was working with schools to ensure they were capable of providing NAPLAN Online this year and next year — which is the last year of the transition to online based testing.

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“The Department of Education and Education Services Australia are working with our remote and very remote schools to undergo the process of testing, particularly with the issue of low and no bandwidth in some our more remote regions across the Northern Territory,” she said.

She said there was work being undertaken to allow testing in areas with low or no bandwidth to be done offline and uploaded at a later date.

The schools undertaking NAPLAN online are both government and non-government schools in Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs.