Released 25/07/2017
The NAPLAN 2016 National Report was released today – the last of three major assessment reports released over the past fortnight.
The NAPLAN 2016 National Report has confirmed the ACT’s strong position nationally. It shows that Canberra school students have continued to perform well in national comparisons, achieving the highest or equal highest national ranking in 18 of 20 areas tested.
Great job to all our teachers, educators, school leaders and most importantly our students for their great work in learning literacy and numeracy skills such as those assessed by NAPLAN.
Together with our schools, I will now look closely at these results and look at where they can help guide future improvements in the ACT’s education system.
It’s also important to keep in mind the many other factors which go into school and student success – fundamentals such as feeling safe at home and school, access to facilities, physical and mental health – as we look at our NAPLAN performance.
A summary of this year’s numbers reveals the ACT performance remains strong.
The ACT performed particularly well in reading, grammar and punctuation and numeracy. Our year 3 and year 5 writing ranked equal second behind Victoria and year 9 reading ranked highest nationally. Year 7 reading was the highest nationally for the 7th consecutive year and year 9 reading the highest nationally for the 9th consecutive year.
One of the areas of particular note in this report is that the gains from year 3 to year 5 and year 7 to year 9 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are greater than those for non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in reading and numeracy for the 2014 to 2016 cohort. It’s important that we use this information, alongside the information gained from our specific Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs to continue to support these students.
NAPLAN data provides parents, schools, government and non-government school sectors with important information about whether our students are reaching important educational goals. It is essential in identifying any areas where further improvement can be made to ensure that Canberra students benefit from an education system of the highest quality.
Even though the ACT has again performed strongly in Australia, the ACT Government’s education commitments are aimed at taking our schools strongly ahead in the future, including:
- a community-wide consultation and policy development process to map out the school education system we want for the future
- an early childhood strategy to look at ways we can improve equity and access to education in the critical early learning years
- 100 scholarships to train teachers in science, technology, engineering and maths.
I have always advocated for a holistic approach to learning, grounded in key principles of equity, fairness and universal access.
As we begin a system-wide process of consultation and policy development next year, I will be maintaining this focus and using national and international data wherever it can add value
- Statement ends -
Yvette Berry, MLA | Media Releases
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