Updated
Victorian schools have been told they can scrap online NAPLAN tests and switch to pen and paper after computer glitches affected students taking the assessments across the country.
Key points:
- The curriculum authority is investigating the “unusual” glitches, which particularly hit schools in Victoria and SA
- Victoria’s Education Minister has instructed schools they can return to pen-and-paper testing
- WA’s education Director General says there were “very real issues” and the state is considering its next steps
The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) said some schools had “connectivity” issues yesterday — a year after concerns were raised about the validity of online testing.
State Education Minister James Merlino said he had instructed the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) to inform all schools participating online they could opt out and switch to paper tests.
“The rollout and performance of NAPLAN online is simply not good enough, and Victorian students, parents and teachers deserve much better than this,” he said.
The National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy, better known as NAPLAN, is standardised testing taken by students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 across the country.
About 50 per cent of schools across the country were taking the assessments online in 2019, compared to 15 per cent last year.
The Australian Education Union (AEU) identified Victoria and South Australia as the two states that experienced the worst of the technical problems.
“We’ve had dozens of calls from around the country about the glitches that have occurred with yesterday’s NAPLAN online testing, from poor broadband to infrastructure problems, to time delays in terms of logging on,” AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe told the ABC’s AM program.
“This has caused significant stress for students and teachers involved in the testing regime.”
More than 350,000 online tests were submitted successfully
ACARA’s CEO David de Carvalho told the ABC the glitches were “unusual” and they were being investigated.
“We understand the frustration and disappointment and distress that this has caused, and we are all working as hard as we can to address the problem,” he said.
Victoria reconsiders involvement in NAPLAN
Mr Merlino said it was “time for a review” of the program, which has been running in its current form for more than a decade.
“While we remain committed to a form of standardised testing, we need to be informed about where we need to make improvements,” Mr Merlino said.
“We’ll be considering our future involvement with NAPLAN in the coming months.”
The calls for a review were echoed by the union, which said it was “gravely concerned about NAPLAN in general”.
“We believe it’s time to have a comprehensive review of NAPLAN and that is also in terms of the way it’s delivered. Without that review, we simply cannot get a broader understanding of what is going on with the roll-out of NAPLAN online,” Ms Haythorpe said.
Western Australia’s Director General of Education, Lisa Rogers, said the glitches presented “very real issues”.
“What I’m trying to ascertain is the level of disruption in West Australian schools and next steps in terms of that testing environment,” she said.
The NSW Department of Education found last year that students who completed the test online were disadvantaged compared with those who sat the traditional pen-and-paper tests.
It followed a report commissioned by the NSW Teachers Federation that recommended the results of a million students “should be discarded” because the tests were so flawed.
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