NAPLAN 2024: Results show how far NT students lag behind rest of nation

The full extent of the underperformance of the Northern Territory student’s has been revealed, with data revealing one in two students were underperforming in class.

More than half of the Territory’s students have fallen behind in their studies, according to the nation’s latest NAPLAN results.

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority on Wednesday revealed the major assessment program’s 2024 results.

On average, 57.4 per cent of NT kids in years three to nine need more support or are “developing”, down 0.4 percentage points from 2023.

Nationally, 32.9 per cent of students in 2024 fell in the same category.

But just 6.8 per cent of the Territory cohort who completed the reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy tests were found to be “exceeding” in their studies.

Territory students performed far below the national scores in all categories.

The greatest difference was in year nine grammar and punctuation, with NT students scoring 92.3 points lower than the national average.

Year nine spelling students came closest to matching the national score, just 58 points lower than the Australian average.

All Year three and seven results, apart from grammar and punctuation, rose from 2023 results.

Meanwhile, year five writing and numeracy scores rose while reading, writing, and grammar and punctuation declined from 2023.

Year nine students saw spelling scores increase, while other test scores declined.

The 2024 data is the second year of results since ACARA reset the NAPLAN time series and standards, making results from pre-2023 incomparable.

Chief executive Stephen Gniel said the results were relatively stable at a national level, but it was “rare” to see any significant change over a single year.

“The trends in NAPLAN data are likely to take several years to emerge as they start to show differences from both the immediately preceding year and the base year of 2023,” Mr Gniel said.