By Nicole Chettle
Australians are being urged to raise expectations on teachers and students, after the latest NAPLAN report revealed the academic performance of primary and secondary students had flat-lined since 2015.
And when it came to writing, Year 9 students have gone backwards since 2011.
The report, which was flagged in August, details the achievements of students in Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 in examinations held across Australia.
Robert Randall, the CEO of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), said expectations needed to be raised.
“We need to step up from a more relaxed ‘she’ll be right’ approach and sort of say ‘actually literacy and numeracy are fundamentally important’,” he said.
The report comes on the back of lacklustre results this month
“There are other countries whose results are better than ours,” Mr Randall said. “They are passing us if you like.”
“We are above international averages. But the question now is, is that enough? Could we do better?”
Indigenous education a bright spot.
One of the areas that did show improvement was Indigenous education. For example, the Year 3 results detail a 17.1 per cent jump since 2008 in grammar and punctuation, and an increase of 12.3 per cent over the same period in reading.
Paul Van Holstein in the Principal at Bradshaw Primary school in Alice Springs, where about 200 Indigenous students make up 40 per cent of the school population.
The school offers intensive literacy programs outside the regular curriculum that run for up to 20 weeks a year. It also offers after school learning clubs, and the programs are delivering impressive results.
“The number of our Aboriginal students achieving the national minimum standard is improving, which is something I’m really happy about, and we’re also seeing some really great growth from Year 3 to Year 5,” Mr Van Holstein said.
“We have some students that are making double or even triple the learning growth that they should be making across that two-year period.”
The ABC spoke to several Aboriginal children at Bradshaw Primary School, including Year 3 pupil Henry Brown who admitted the test had been tough.
“It was a little bit hard for me. But I got better the second time I did it,” he said.
The Federal Opposition said the report showed the gap between the haves, and the have nots, was growing.