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Queensland students have received the poorest NAPLAN scores of any mainland state for the second year in a row, with almost two in five failing to meet national standards for literacy and maths.
But thousands of Queensland parents refused to allow their children to sit the controversial exam – in a growing trend not seen to the same extent interstate.
National NAPLAN results, released on Wednesday, show Queensland performed worse in almost every test – reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy – and year level compared with NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, with a higher percentage of students scoring in the lowest proficiency level of “needs additional support”.
One in 10 Australian students fall in the lowest band of “needs additional support” overall, compared with 12.9 per cent in Queensland.Credit: iStock
In Queensland, 38.4 per cent of all students were in the “needs additional support” or “developing” categories, compared with the national average of 32.9 per cent, with the results showing no improvement compared with 2023.
NAPLAN tests are held for students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.
In year 9 grammar and punctuation, 46.1 per cent of Queensland students did not meet proficiency standards.
Girls outperformed boys in literacy in all grades in Queensland, and boys outperformed girls in numeracy.
But the value of NAPLAN is under scrutiny, given withdrawal rates are much higher in Queensland than anywhere else in Australia.