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A Win for Education: NAPLAN Minimum Standards Scrapped

23 Feb 2018

A Win for Education: NAPLAN Minimum Standards Scrapped

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/stokes-scraps-controversial-year-9-naplan-policy-20180221-p4z180.html

A win for education and common sense when NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes ended the link between NAPLAN and the HSC this week. This miss informed and poorly executed policy has earned the reputation it deserved- one of the most controversial and disliked educational policies in this State’s history. NAPLAN is designed as a diagnostic test and is a useful comparative tool of student growth. A decision in 2016 to make it a pre- qualifying test for the HSC, moved the test from this diagnostic tool, to a high stakes test for an age group not well prepared to manage this. Higher standards in literacy and numeracy are important and the short online testing to be completed in reading, writing and numeracy from Year 10 onwards is a far better solution. I can hear Year 9 students breathing a little easier!