The Australian Education Council has announced that the school NAPLAN testing scheduled for May will not proceed this year.
The Council said its decision not to proceed with NAPLAN in 2020 was taken to assist school leaders, teachers and support staff focus on the wellbeing of students and their continuity of education, including potential online and remote learning during the COVID-19 crisis.
“The impact of responses to the COVID-19 virus may affect the delivery of NAPLAN testing,” the Council said.
“Including the operation of centralised marking centres and the implications for nationally comparable data if an insufficient number of students are available to do the test,” it said.
The Council said its decision not to proceed with NAPLAN also meant that the scheduled testing of the NAPLAN Online platform, known as the Coordinated Practice Test (CPT), would not proceed.
State and Territory Ministers for Education acknowledged the work that Departments and schools had undertaken in preparation for the anticipated CPT, which was due to commence this week.
The Ministers reiterated that the National Cabinet had agreed, on the advice of the Chief Health and Medical Officers that the pre-emptive closure of schools was not proportionate or effective as a public health intervention to prevent community transmission of COVID-19 at this time.
