Simon Birmingham urges parents, schools to support NAPLAN testing

Simon Birmingham has urged parents to support NAPLAN, as the ACT joins NSW in calling for the test to be scrapped.

Simon Birmingham is urging teachers and parents to support NAPLAN. Picture: AAP.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham has urged parents and schools to support NAPLAN testing, as the ACT Labor education minister joins her NSW Liberal counterpart Rob Stokes in calling for the abolition of the national assessment program.

Students in years Three, Five, Seven and Nine are due to take part in the language conventions aspect of the test today, with the reading paper due tomorrow and numeracy on Thursday.

Earlier this month Mr Stokes said the test was outdated and misleading and should be scrapped.

ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry backed the call this morning.

“What we’re hearing in the ACT, what it is causing, is this kind of high stakes testing,” Ms Berry told ABC radio.

“Schools are marketing themselves against each other.

“I absolutely welcome Rob Stokes’ comments and I hope ministers across the country are working towards an improved assessment tool and putting an end to NAPLAN.”

Senator Birmingham said he strongly urged parents and schools to continue to support NAPLAN.

“NAPLAN is just one assessment that occurs at four different times during a child’s education experience, but it does hone in on the basics of literacy and numeracy,” Senator Birmingham told ABC radio.

“It is valued by many, many parents. The Australian Parents’ Council, the government state school organisations and others all quite recently reaffirmed their support for NAPLAN because they like to see that they get a check at these different junctures of a child’s educational experience that affirms whether they are learning the basic reading, writing, literacy, numeracy skills and whether they are meeting the minimum standards compared to other students around Australia.”

Senator Birmingham said the numbers of parents withdrawing their children from NAPLAN were “minuscule” compared with the level of participation, when asked whether the test was in danger of being undermined.

“Of course statistically if you saw a massive withdrawal rate, yes (it would be in danger of being undermined), but my opinion is that parents, as affirmed by the different parent council bodies, do value this type of consistent national check as to whether children are learning to read, write, develop literacy and numeracy skills,” he said.

“That’s exactly what NAPLAN seeks to check. It is by no means the only tool of assessment use in school, nor should it be, nor should it be overhyped as some who wish to rail against it seek to do.

“What we should do is just allow it to be another day at school, another assessment check that happens during the course of a child’s life, but one that does give nationally useful data that is available to compare against averages as to whether children are meeting their benchmarks of performance, and that is a useful research tool for researchers, policy makers, as well as for parents.”