NAPLAN: A shocking wake-up call

The Albanese Government needs to focus on the foundations of a good education – reading, writing and mathematics – by mandating evidence-based teaching methods. BY Sarah Henderson.

First published in the Daily Telegraph.

The 2023 NAPLAN results are out and they are a national embarrassment.

It is time the Albanese Government and Education Minister, Jason Clare, stopped the endless talk and vortex of reviews, and fixed this shambles.

It is indeed shocking that one in three children failed their literacy and numeracy tests this year, and only 15 per cent of students exceeded the expected standard for their year group. Even worse, two thirds of Indigenous students cannot read properly in Year 3 and do not catch up by Year 9.

All in all, 430,000 students out of the 1.3 million who sat the NAPLAN tests are performing below expectations. The NAPLAN results show that students are twice as likely to fail than to excel in the classroom. Taxpayers have invested $662 billion into schools since NAPLAN testing started, but our results keep getting worse and worse. On almost every score, Australian students are going backwards.

Combating these declining standards is not about funding. The Albanese Government needs to focus on the foundations of a good education – reading, writing and mathematics – by mandating evidence-based teaching methods such as explicit instruction and the teaching of phonics in every Australian classroom.

While the Tasmanian Liberal government will introduce best-practice literacy instruction, along with rigorous testing, in 2026, the refusal by state and federal Labor governments to follow suit is failing students and their families.

This is not about the quality of our hard working and dedicated teachers. The evidence, backed by the Australian Education Research Organisation, tells us that teachers can excel in the classroom if they are supported by the best evidence-based teaching and learning methods.

A large number of universities, on the other hand, must wear some of the blame for delivering deficient teacher training courses. That’s why the Coalition, when in government, invested heavily in teacher training and retention, classroom behaviour, an improved curriculum and research to inform the best methods of teaching.

Mr Clare inherited a robust blueprint from the Coalition.

However, in proposing catch-up tutorials, he is just tinkering at the edges, compounded by his failure to fix the growing teacher shortage crisis. Despite the parlous state of our education system, some schools are producing some incredible results.

At Marsden Road Public School in Liverpool, where explicit, high impact instruction and teacher coaching are front and centre, the school’s NAPLAN results have improved out of sight.

Under the inspiring leadership of principal Manisha Gazula, she has demonstrated that the biggest disadvantage a child can suffer is not their postcode, but the failure to learn to read and write.

Our clever country has drifted into mediocrity.

Australian students and their parents deserve urgent action now, and so does our nation.

Sarah Henderson is the Shadow Minister for Education and Senator for Victoria.