Student literacy and numeracy appears to be stagnating in Australia, with the latest NAPLAN test results fuelling concern about ongoing trends.
About 10 per cent of students need more help to meet basic education standards, leading federal Education Minister Jason Clare to acknowledge that “there’s more work to do”.
However, Mr Clare noted the results released on Wednesday showed “encouraging signs of improvement” in numeracy and literacy.
Two-thirds of students performed strongly or exceeded expectations on the NAPLAN testing, but geographic location, parent education levels and family background continue to be major factors impacting results.
Almost one-in-three Indigenous students fell below minimum standards and needed extra support, compared to less than one-in-ten non-Indigenous students.
Amy Haywood, Deputy Program Director of Grattan’s Education Program, says the results are worrying, although she noted the results haven’t differed much over the past three years.
“It’s worrying that one in three school students are still falling short of that proficiency benchmark in literacy and numeracy,” she told AAP.
“We should note this isn’t a one-off.”
There was also a regional divide, with just one-in-five students in very remote areas considered strong or exceeding expectations – far below 70 per cent of students in major cities.
Girls again outperformed boys in literacy but boys did better in numeracy, with the gaps emerging in early secondary and late primary school.
Some 71.1 per cent of year 7 girls achieved strong or “exceeding” – the highest proficiency level – in writing results, compared to 57 per cent of boys.
In numeracy, by year 3 there were 6.1 per cent fewer girls achieving “exceeding” results than boys, which increased to eight per cent by year 5.
Children from higher socio-economic backgrounds in urban areas also tended to score better.
The Centre for Independent Studies Education research fellow Trisha Jha believes improvement in results is on the horizon, although it will take time.
“We’ve got instructional models and approaches to teaching and curriculum that are becoming more aligned with evidence,” Ms Jha told AAP.
“Those are really positive changes but the biggest problem is that it’s going to take a long time for the impact of those policies to be felt on students at a classroom level.”
Results in all subjects were relatively stable across the board but Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority chief executive Stephen Gniel called for “collective action” to help those left behind.
“Such as supporting students from our regional and remote areas, those from a disadvantaged background, and Indigenous students,” he said.
The curriculum boss was buoyed by more Indigenous students in years 7 and 9 achieving “exceeding” results in writing and numeracy, as well as an overall better maths results.
“It’s encouraging to see higher NAPLAN scores on average across years 5, 7 and 9 in numeracy, particularly among the stronger students,” he said.
“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”.
Year 3 and year 5 students recorded better reading and numeracy results compared to last year, however there was a jump in year 7 and 9 students classified as needing extra support in both subject areas.
NAPLAN results released on Wednesday did not give reasons behind the trends and a school-by-school breakdown will be released later in the year.
Participation rates have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels as some 1.3 million students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sat the tests in early March – equivalent to 93.8 per cent of students.
That includes students in Queensland, who did their exams in the days after Cyclone Alfred struck and still managed the highest participation rates since 2019.
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