The Federal Government's National Assessment Plan - Literacy and Numeracy is set to be conducted online, after Education Ministers signed an in principle agreement.

 

“Moving NAPLAN online will have a number of benefits. It will help ACARA get results of individual tests back to students, parents and teachers more quickly than paper exams, and will also help us gather more accurate information about how individual students are progressing, particularly at the higher and lower end of the achievement scales,” Federal School Education Minister Peter Garrett said.

 

“Using online testing is also more accessible for many students with disability, compared to a paper test. It could also mean tests would be tailored to the levels of each individual student, rather than just one test for all students in a year group regardless of their current achievement level.”

 

The announcement comes after the Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood convened to finalise the first ever national curriculum for senior high school.

 

The curriculum content and achievement standards for English, maths, science, and history were agreed as the common base for state and territory courses. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) will now work with state curriculum authorities on implementing the new curriculum.

 

“All states and territories apart from NSW will have substantially implemented the curriculum for English, maths, science and history for Foundation to Year 10 by the end of 2013. We are also close to finalising the curriculum for Chinese Mandarin and Italian, and have completed the arts curriculum,” Mr Garrett said.