‘Needs to go’: Stressed teachers call to scrap ‘broken’ NAPLAN

SCARED kids and stressed teachers have prompted intense calls to scrap NAPLAN as the controversial testing regime gets udner way across the nation this week.

Costing millions of dollars every year, education experts have said NAPLAN is outdated, misused, and causes undue angst to kids, parents and teachers.

Queensland Teachers’ Union president Cresta Richardson said the majority of teachers “loathe” the test and most feel the testing method is “broken”.

“The message from members is clear – NAPLAN in its current form needs to go,” she said.

“It is the union’s view that in the face of a federal government that, despite the views of the profession that standardised testing is an ill-informed practice that provides little educational value to students, is determined to keep some form of the test in place, the high stakes nature of the program needs to change.”

Ms Richardson said many teachers were pressured to “teach to the test”, with NAPLAN results even used for performance management of staff.

University of NSW Professor of Educational Policy Pasi Sahlbeg said his own young son, set to undertake NAPLAN for the first time this year, was “afraid and doesn’t want to go to school”.

“On his first day of school this year he heard about NAPLAN – it’s been such a traumatic experience already and it’s affecting his learning,” he said.

“Australia is the only country to hold on to a census high stakes assessment – we are a bit of an outlier. We need clarity on the aims and the purpose of NAPLAN.

“The original intent of NAPLAN was to be a low stakes assessment – not anymore.”

Prof Sahlberg said a more effective way of taking the pulse of students’ literacy and numeracy skills would be a sample-based assessment – an idea the teachers’ union backs.

“Parents should opt in for their students to participate in NAPLAN and the withdrawal form should be made more easily accessible for parents, not hidden behind firewalls as has been the practice this year,” Ms Richardson said.

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting authority, who oversee NAPLAN, say this year’s test may be the most crucial one to date, given it was cancelled last year due to the pandemic.