New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland and the Northern Territory are among the states not going ahead with this year’s NAPLAN online testing trial.
Last week, Queensland’s Education Minister Kate Jones confirmed state schools would withdraw from the NAPLAN online testing trial this year.
Queensland’s Catholic and private schools have also followed suit, Education Review reported.
Education Review reported that a NSW Education Department spokesperson said that it wants to see what happens in other jurisdictions first.
The spokesperson also raised concerns about the typing skills of Year 3 students who must sit NAPLAN. NSW, for the moment, plans to adopt the online test in 2018.
The NT Education Department has taken a similar position, according to the online publication. It also has geographical concerns due to its high proportion of regional and rural schools.
The Tasmanian Education Department said it wants students to familiarise themselves with online NAPLAN before having to officially undergo the examination.
Only schools from Victoria, Western Australia, the ACT and South Australia will participate in the online testing trial.
“I’m confident that any and all concerns can adequately be addressed to ensure that this is a smooth process for schools who are involved in it,” Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham told journalists in Hobart.
“The jurisdictions who are continuing with that trial have committed to work closely with officials in terms of technological issues to make sure any and all issues are resolved to their satisfaction so the small number of schools participating in the trial can have absolute confidence that it will work and be successful this year.”
Minister Birmingham added that “transitioning to NAPLAN Online will enable us to have faster results for Australian schools and much richer results in terms of individual student assessments”.
“It’ll make NAPLAN a much better tool in the future, for teachers, principals, parents to be able to get quick, detailed information about where students sit, their competencies and where additional assistance is required, or indeed where extra potential exists in terms of students of high achievement and ability.”
The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority is scheduled to roll out NAPLAN online nationwide by 2019.