Western Australia’s year 9 students recorded some of the nation’s best results in this year’s NAPLAN tests, but year 3 students fell critically short.
The Australian Curriculum and Standards Authority released the new data late on Tuesday evening, which showed nearly half of all year 3 students in WA did not meet proficiency standards in grammar and punctuation.
To meet proficiency, students must score in the top two NAPLAN bands.
For reading, nearly 38 per cent of WA year 3s did not meet proficiency standards – recording the third-lowest scores nationally, only slightly ahead of Tasmania – and in spelling, nearly 41 per cent fell into the “developing” or “needs additional support” bands.
It was a different story for the state’s year 9 students, who performed the best nationally in both reading and numeracy, with nearly 71 per cent of students in each testing area achieving proficiency.
The results also showed students living in very remote areas of the state have fallen behind all other demographics by a significant amount – almost 64 per cent were below proficiency across all testing areas and only 0.7 per cent were in the “exceeding” category.
Education Minister Sabine Winton praised all WA students who took part, especially the year 9s for their excellent scores.
But she reminded parents and students that while the results were a good indicator of progress, they were not the defining factor of ability.
“As a former teacher, I know that NAPLAN plays an important role in helping teachers and parents monitor students’ progress in literacy and numeracy,” she said.
“It is really positive to see that WA’s participation in NAPLAN was higher than the national average in 2025 for all year levels and assessments. I want to congratulate our teachers, school leaders, and students on this achievement.
“The majority of our year 9 students continue to meet strong or above proficiency levels in all assessment areas, which is fantastic to see.
“There is always more work to be done, and I look forward to working with the Department, Catholic Education WA and AISWA, school leaders, and educators to bolster our students’ results in the coming years.”
Nationally, the results of the NAPLAN tests, sat by 1.26 million children in March, show nearly 33 per cent of the students are either “in need of additional support”, or “developing”.
Australian Curriculum and Standards Authority chief executive Stephen Gniel said the 2025 results remained largely static three years after a radical overhaul of NAPLAN reporting, with one in 10 students needing additional support.
“The latest results also continue to highlight areas that need collective attention, such as supporting students from our regional and remote areas, those from a disadvantaged background, and Indigenous students,” he said.
“It’s encouraging to see higher NAPLAN scores on average across years 5, 7 and 9 in numeracy.
“These may be small percentage changes, but the increases represent an additional 20,000 Australian students performing at the highest proficiency level – exceeding – in 2025 compared to 2024.”
Grattan Institute education program director Jordana Hunter had a different perspective.
“We should not settle for one in three children falling short of the proficient benchmark, or becoming comfortable with mediocre performance,” she said.
“It’s critical for parents to understand that if their child is developing category they are still likely to need additional support in class to get back on track.”
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