Greens spokesperson for Education Hon Alison Xamon MLC has called on the WA Government to follow the lead of New South Wales and stop using Year 9 NAPLAN test results to determine whether a student meets the minimum requirements for Year 12 graduation.
Ms Xamon said since 2016, WA students have had to meet reading, writing and numeracy requirements through Year 9 NAPLAN testing or the Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (OLNA) to achieve the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) and graduate from Year 12.
She said Year 9 students were required to achieve results in band 8 or above in NAPLAN reading, writing and numeracy to pre-qualify for secondary graduation.
“In the 2016 NAPLAN, 15,381 Year 9 students did not achieve band 8 or higher in reading and 19,652 Year 9 students did not achieve band 8 or higher in writing,” Ms Xamon said.
“Since the introduction of higher requirements, the Year 12 WACE achievement rate has dropped from 96.2% in 2015 to 89.4% in 2016 - and to 69.8% in 2016 from 87.5% in 2015 for Aboriginal students.
“We are simply putting too much unnecessary pressure on children, and this is happening at younger and younger ages.
Ms Xamon said childhood was disappearing at a rapid rate with the push down of formal learning and the loss of play based learning in the early years.
She said this was occurring despite evidence demonstrating the importance of play to children’s education and wellbeing.
“We need to be realistic about the pros and cons of NAPLAN,” Ms Xamon said.
“It might be a useful diagnostic test for teachers, and provide useful evidence for researchers and policy makers, but it does not lead to improved performance.
“It also places significant stress on students and teachers.”
Ms Xamon said the decision to make NAPLAN results even higher stakes for Year 9 students did not appear to be underpinned by any evidence, and ran the real risk of negatively impacting their wellbeing.
She said NSW has recognised that there can still be minimum standards without placing an unnecessary burden on 13 and 14 year old children who are not even halfway through their secondary schooling.
“I would urge the Education Minister to reconsider her position and follow NSW’s lead,” Ms Xamon said.
“This would demonstrate we have the best interests of our children at heart and stop the NAPLAN testing creep.”
