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2012/20: Should NAPLAN tests be abolished?
Introduction to the media issue
Video clip at right:a May, 2011, Channel 10 news item on NAPLAN. Reactions to the tests vary - in students and teachers. If you cannot see this clip, it will be because video is blocked by your network. To view the clip, access from home or from a public library, or from another network which allows viewing of video clips.
What they said...
'It's one test on one day. It's a snapshot but it's been positioned by policymakers as if it's a very important snapshot'
Dr Nicky Dulfer, the University of Melbourne's Graduate School of Education
'Stress is an inevitable part of life and ...students need to learn how to deal with it'
Reverend Bill Crews, the head of the Exodus Foundation - a not-for-profit organisation which provides academic assistance to schoolchildren
The issue at a glance
On November 26, 2012, a report on NAPLAN (Australia's National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy) testing was released. The report is based on a survey by a team at the University of Melbourne, commissioned by the Whitlam Institute.
8,300 responses were gathered from teachers across the country. Of these almost 90 per cent reported that students felt severely stressed, claiming to have had difficulty sleeping before the NAPLAN tests. Two thirds of the teachers surveyed claimed that they set at least three practice tests in the fortnight before the NAPLAN testing.
The University of Melbourne research team has called for a review of NAPLAN and expressed concern that the tests have led not only to increased stress among children but to more time being spent on preparing students for the tests at the expense of other subjects and face-to-face teaching time.
Critics of NAPLAN testing, including the Australian Education Union (AEU), have called for its abolition. The federal Education Minister, Peter Garrett, and some educationalists have defended NAPLAN, arguing that the survey is not representative and that shortcomings in teacher attitudes toward the tests are not a fault with the tests themselves.