Nervous kids on standby as NAPLAN testing put on hold

Australian schools continue their NAPLAN testing today after a disruption over widespread tehnical issues, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority said.

Testing was paused for hours this morning due to issues with the online platform that administers the test.

This issue, which affected students being able to log on to the online platform to complete their tests, was “urgently investigated” by technology provider Education Services Australia, who run the platform.

More than 1.3 million students in years three, five, seven and nine at schools across Australia sat today’s NAPLAN tests.

SA Education Minister Blair Boyer said he understood the outage was a national issue, affecting students in other states as well as here in SA schools.

“I have two daughters who are supposed to be in NAPLAN for the first time today as well, and they were very, very nervous and a lot of kids and parents will feel exactly the same way,” he said.

“No doubt they’ll be disappointed, as am I.”

When asked if testing should go back to the days of pen and paper, Boyer said he gets asked that every year.

“I would say for the most part, certainly in the years that I have been fortunate to be the Education Minister, the system has actually worked very well,” Boyer said.

“What it does help us do, as opposed to pen and paper, is we get the results much faster, which is one of the reasons we brought testing forward to have it in March so we could actually get the results to schools and, even more importantly, the parents earlier in the year.

“So if it shows that your son or daughter is not doing particularly well in something, you get the support straight away, instead of potentially waiting across the summer break.”