Arabic version: نتائج الحساب في اختبار نابلان للصف الثالث في أستراليا الغربية تثير القلق

According to ABC News, Western Australia’s year 9 students scored above the national average in every NAPLAN category this year, while year 3 numeracy results have prompted concern. Almost 40 per cent of WA year 3 students scored below the national average for numeracy, and 39.9 per cent were in the bottom two of four performance tiers.

Year 3 and year 5 students recorded below-average NAPLAN scores in every category. Year 7 students were below average in all categories except spelling, where they scored 543.1 compared with a national average of 541.6. NAPLAN assessed about 1.2 million students nationwide in writing, spelling, reading, numeracy, and grammar and punctuation.

There were some gains on the previous year’s results. Year 5 grammar and punctuation increased by 0.8 per cent, while year 7 numeracy rose by 0.7 per cent. The largest decline was in year 3 writing, down 1.7 per cent from last year.

WA Education Minister Sabine Winton described the year 9 figures as “encouraging” and said the education system was working well to support student growth over time. She said year 3 numeracy was the area of “most concern” in WA and nationally, referring to anecdotal reports of more children entering schools with developmental delays and complex needs.

Opposition education spokesperson Liam Staltari said the year 3 results were warning signs that should not be ignored. He said children who were not supported during critical early years could fall behind later in school, and called for more government action, citing student-to-teacher ratios in WA classrooms and teacher burnout.