NAPLAN tests axed as a path to HSC

NSW has dumped plans to use Year 9 NAPLAN test results to determine whether a student can receive a HSC.

NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes. Picture: Richard Dobson

NSW has dumped plans to use Year 9 NAPLAN test results to determine whether a student meets the minimum literacy and numeracy standards required for successfully completing secondary school amid fears young ­people were being burdened with “unnecessary pressure”.

Education Minister Rob Stokes announced the change in policy yesterday, revealing that students would no longer be ­required to score in the top three NAPLAN levels (bands 8, 9 and 10) in reading, writing and numeracy to qualify for their HSC.

But students will still be ­required to show they have met minimum literacy and numeracy standards by passing an online test — able to be taken at any time — in order to obtain the HSC.

Mr Stokes said the policy, ­announced in 2016 by former NSW education minister Adrian Piccoli as part of a bid to motivate students to improve their results, received widespread support at the time.

But consultation since had turned up concerns that linking NAPLAN with the HSC was adding to the pressure being felt by students, he said.

“NAPLAN should be a simple check-up, not a major operation,” Mr Stokes said. “It is one tool used to assess educational progress — not a high-stakes test.”

The backdown was welcomed by the NSW Teachers Federation, which had supported the push for minimum standards but opposed to the use of NAPLAN as a benchmark.

“It was an inappropriate use of NAPLAN due to the extremely narrow focus of the tests and the lack of relevance to curriculum content,” federation president Maurie Mulheron said. “Its use risked labelling students as failures early in their high school ­career.”

Victoria’s Curriculum and ­Assessment Authority, meanwhile, has confirmed it has no ­intention of introducing a literacy and numeracy benchmark for passing Year 12, despite reports to the contrary emerging last year.

A similar system has been in place for a few years in Western Australia and the first group of students affected completed Year 12 last year, when the number of students awarded the WA Certificate of Education — the equivalent of the NSW HSC — fell to 91.9 per cent compared with 96.9 per cent three years earlier.

WA students who do not achieve the minimum standard in Year 9 NAPLAN have to sit the Online Literacy and Numeracy test, or OLNA, a multiple-choice test designed to assess their readiness for higher education or the workforce.

WA Education Minister Sue Ellery said the policy had been ­acknowledged as “one of the most successful in lifting the standard of literacy and numeracy of our graduating students”.

“Our results reflect the success of the current system and we won’t be looking to change it,” she said.

The NSW Education Standards Authority has updated its website to reflect the NSW changes: “This change has been made to ensure NAPLAN ­remains focused on its diagnostic purpose and to reduce unnecessary stress on young people.”