One in three students are still not meeting basic literacy and numeracy standards in Australia, according to the 2024 NAPLAN results.
In both areas, ten percent of students fall into the “needs additional support” level and another 23 percent of students are “developing”. The average proportion of students who achieved “strong” and “exceeding” levels was 66 percent.
Almost 1.3 million students across 9,431 campuses and schools sat this year’s National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests.
The results revealed that girls outperformed boy students in literacy, while the boys excelled at numeracy compared to the girls.
Data also showed that nationally, a higher proportion of Indigenous students need additional support compared to the overall student population. Around one in three Indigenous students across all year levels need additional support for both literacy and numeracy.
Minister for Education Jason Clare said that serious reform is needed to build a better and fairer school education system.
“Your chances in life shouldn’t depend on your parents’ pay packet or the colour of your skin, but these results again show that’s still the case,” he said.
“I want to invest billions into our public schools and I want to make sure that money makes a difference to the kids who really need it.”
Shadow Minister for Education Sarah Anderson expressed her concern over the “disastrous” results, saying that there is a “national crisis” in Australian schools that has been compounded by Labor’s school reform agenda.
“It is shocking so many young Australians do not reach minimum standards of literacy and numeracy. Getting back to basics also means ridding the classroom of indoctrination and other activist causes,” she said.
The Reading Guarantee report by the Grattan Institute, a public policy think tank, noted that the “problems are persistent”.
“This year’s results are no better than last year’s,” the report said.
“The problems are also everywhere – in every state and territory, at least 30 per cent of students fall below the proficiency benchmark on average across year levels and tests.”
Photo: Anonymous pupil solving task during lesson in classroom by Katerina Holmes is available HERE and is used under a Creative Commons Licence. This photo has not been modified.
