Latest news with #LiteracyandNumeracy
The Australian
29-07-2025
- Science
- The Australian
NAPLAN stars rise as strugglers marooned
You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback. You can now listen to The Australian's articles. A gaping class divide is exposed in this year's English and maths testing, with an increasing gap between star students and struggling classmates. Student performance has gone backwards in remote, very remote and outer regional areas this year, despite a slight turnaround in major cities. On average across Australia, one in 10 students 'needs additional support'', while one in six performs at the highest level, based on the 2025 National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). Overall, 132,857 of the 1.3 million children in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are struggling to keep up with basic learning, while 213,098 are excelling. Some 6013 extra students have fallen into the lowest band of test results since 2023, while 17,654 more have jumped into the top category. One in three students failed to meet baseline standards in reading, writing, numeracy, spelling, grammar and punctuation, averaged across all domains and year levels in 2025. The bright spots are numeracy and reading, with results improving slightly across Years 5, 7 and 9 compared with the 2024 tests. The improvement in maths should help reverse the record low number of high school students studying high-level maths to the end of Year 12. Only 8.2 per cent of Year 12 students studied specialist mathematics in 2023, while 16.8 per cent enrolled in maths methods – both prerequisites for many hi-tech careers, including engineering and medicine. Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute director Tim Marchant said students must master fundamental mathematics in primary school if they were to study high-level maths in high school, opening the door to lucrative careers in science, technology, engineering and maths. 'The maths teacher shortage is a serious issue, as many schoolchildren are being taught by out-of-field maths teachers,'' Professor Marchant said. 'The decisions made in secondary school shape the nation's future workforce. With fewer students, particularly females, pursuing advanced mathematics in Year 12, Australia risks undermining its future scientific and technological capabilities.'' Federal Education Minister Jason Clare praised 'encouraging signs of improvement' in the NAPLAN data released on Wednesday. 'The improvements in literacy and numeracy are good news, but there's more work to do,'' Mr Clare said. He said state and territory governments were starting to roll out teaching reforms – such as phonics-based reading lessons, explicit teaching methods and catch-up tutoring – in return for $16bn in bonus federal funding for public schools over the next decade. 'This funding is tied to real and practical reforms,'' he said. Exclusive NAPLAN data, aggregating student performance across all learning domains and year levels, reveals a failure to lower the proportion of poor-performing students compared with 2023, when the NAPLAN achievement categories were re-set. In the aggregated data, just over 22 per cent of students are deemed to be 'developing'' their skills this year – code for failing to meet minimum standards – in a slight improvement from 2023. Half the students are rated 'strong'' for meeting the standards and 16.2 per cent have exceeded them – up from 15.1 per cent in 2023. Boys continue to outperform girls in mathematics, while girls beat the boys in literacy. In Year 7, the first year of high school, 71 per cent of girls have met or surpassed the minimum standard for writing, compared with just 57 per cent of boys. By the age of 14, in Year 9, nearly half the boys failed in writing, compared to one-third of girls. In maths, similar numbers of girls and boys were struggling with the subject but 14.4 per cent of boys excelled, compared with 9.2 per cent of girls. A child's success at school strongly reflects family background. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are four times more likely than non-Indigenous classmates to be struggling, averaged across all year levels and testing domains. Non-Indigenous children are four times more likely to be top of the class. One in three Indigenous students needs additional support in reading and numeracy, throughout primary and high school. However, this year's NAPLAN testing shows an encouraging increase in the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teenagers performing at the top level in writing and numeracy at high school. In Year 9 writing, 6.6 per cent of Indigenous students excelled this year, compared with 4.3 per cent in 2024. Among migrant children, with a parent who speaks a foreign language at home, 22.6 per cent were star students, averaged across all years in both literacy and numeracy. Only 13.7 per cent of Australian-born students with English-speaking parents performed at the top level. The children of long-term unemployed parents are the most likely to fail at school. Just 3.2 per cent of children with unemployed parents are top performers in Year 9 maths, compared with 20.6 per cent of classmates with at least one parent who went to university. Even children whose parents finished high school, but do not have a degree, are far more likely to fail. In Year 9 reading, 29 per cent of students with a university-educated parent performed at the top level, compared with 7.7 per cent of students whose parents finished high school but did not go on to higher education. Exclusive data also reveals how Australia's flatlining NAPLAN results have been dragged down by Queensland's lacklustre performance in this year's English and maths testing. Students in Melbourne and Sydney outperformed other mainland cities. But children from Brisbane are twice as likely as those from Sydney to require remedial support for writing in Year 3 – reflecting Queensland's long-time refusal to adopt phonics-based reading instruction, and NSW's embrace of explicit teaching methods. The disparities are revealed in the first direct comparison of city-by-city NAPLAN results, based on unpublished data from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. The city-based results cancel the tyranny of distance, which is usually blamed for low results in states with more students in far-flung schools challenged teacher shortages and high truancy rates. After a decade of Labor government, Queensland's new LNP Education Minister, John-Paul Langbroek, has fast-tracked the phonics test to begin this term, with numeracy checks for Year 1 students to start next year. Mr Langbroek said the LNP government was delivering a 'fresh start'' for Queensland students, with more teachers and safer classrooms. 'We're getting back to the basics to lift results with mandatory Year 1 phonics and numeracy checks, more support for teachers in the classroom, and less red tape,'' Mr Langbroek said. Victorian Education Minister Ben Carroll said 'top of the class'' Victorian students had achieved their strongest NAPLAN results ever, ranking first or second on 18 of 20 measures. 'Victoria is the education state and our nation-leading NAPLAN results are the proof,'' Mr Carroll said. 'Victorian students are smashing records''. Acting NSW Education Minister Courtney Houssos said higher wages, reduced workload and a ban on students using mobile phones in classrooms had seen teacher vacancies fall 40 per cent, to their lowest level in five years. She said the Minns Labor government was introducing explicit-teaching methods to ensure children learned, and supporting struggling students with targeted tuition. She said the new 'knowledge and skills rich'' English and maths syllabuses in NSW used explicit and systematic teaching of writing and maths. West Australian Education Minister Sabine Winton said 350 public schools had been chosen for small-group tuition of struggling students, and all schools were required to teach phonics explicitly. Federal Education Minister Jason Clare, at Stanmore Public School in Sydney's inner west, says the NAPLAN 2025 results are 'encouraging but there's more work to do''. ACARA, which administers the NAPLAN tests, described the results as 'broadly stable'' across all year levels and subjects since 2023. ACARA chief executive Stephen Gniel said the results 'highlight areas that need collective attention, such as supporting students from our regional and remote areas, those from a disadvantaged background, and Indigenous students''. Centre for Independent Studies education policy director Glenn Fahey said the NAPLAN results showed 'another year of more spending, but the same outcomes''. 'Despite encouraging glimpses, the overwhelming evidence is of an education system stuck in neutral, when it needs revving up,'' he said. Mr Fahey said taxpayers will spend $90 billion in funding for schools this year, averaging $21,000 per student. 'But student achievement has not kept pace with the investment,'' he said. CIS research fellow Trisha Jha said schools must focus on a knowledge-rich curriculum, explicit teaching and better use of class time. 'If we want better results, we need better teaching,'' she said.
The Hindu
22-05-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Bridging the learning gap: Why parental and community involvement is key to India's FLN mission
In Lalakhedi village, located in the Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh, Ramprasad, a daily wage labourer, is a father of three school-going children, Anshu, Vidhya, and Gauri, who study in Classes 1, 3, and 4, at a government school, Madhyamik Vidyalaya, Lalakhedi. When asked about his involvement in their education, whether he motivates his children to attend school regularly or complete their homework, or knows what syllabus is being taught in school, he said, 'Yes, but they do it themselves.' Ramprasad says his children return home after school and complete their schoolwork on their own. 'They don't get any homework these days,' he added. Both he and his wife, who is also a daily wage worker, are often away from home during the day, leaving little room for academic support to their children. When asked if his wife gets involved in the children's studies, Ramprasad said, 'She has not studied much, so she is often unable to help.' He added that he has studied till Class 8. Expressing a common belief among many parents, he said, 'There's nothing much to study in Class 1 and Class 2 in any case,' suggesting that early-grade learning is easy and can be the school's responsibility. As schools work toward basic reading and arithmetic, families and communities outside school also play a major part, say educationists, adding without their participation, classroom efforts alone may fall short. However, a significant proportion of India's schoolchildren are not very different from Ramprasad's children. Their parents and the extended community around them are not in a position to play that role. The importance of active parental involvement becomes even more pronounced in the context of the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat Mission, which aims to ensure that all children acquire Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) skills by the end of Class 3 by the year 2026-27. FLN levels at this age are important for future studies and skills, and then employability. The school's FLN efforts include ensuring the child's ability to read age-appropriate texts with comprehension and carry out basic mathematical tasks like addition, subtraction, and multiplication. To support and assess the progress of children under the NIPUN Bharat mission, the government has introduced PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), a national assessment centre under NCERT which aims to establish a framework for assessing learning outcomes across States and ensure that FLN goals are being met effectively. PARAKH helps schools and policymakers identify gaps early and make informed interventions. The success of these goals and programmes hinges not only on what happens within the classroom. There is a need for more community-level campaigns and support mechanisms that can bridge the gap between school, home and studies. The problem is not just access or infrastructure, but a lack of interconnectedness—between parents and teachers, between policy and practice, and between the child's world inside and outside school. Filling this void requires a coordinated, community-powered movement, not just classroom-based reform. Root causes Jayant Joshi, a retired government school principal who is now involved in developing FLN workbooks (Abhyas Pustika), is engaged in creating training modules for teachers under the FLN programme in Bhopal. He shares the challenges he has observed at the ground level while working closely with families and communities. He noted that children often miss school during harvest or the 'katai' seasons, as they are expected to help their families. Many children are tasked with looking after younger siblings when their parents are away at work, which further affects their attendance and learning consistency. He observed that teacher training does not translate into actual ground work due to differences in teaching methods, lack of understanding and, sometimes, just inertia. Mr. Joshi says that while the special FLN workbooks are designed for students to carry home and revise what they've learned in school, parental involvement remains minimal. Many families, particularly in rural and tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh, come from farming backgrounds or belong to Adivasi communities, where the parents themselves often haven't received formal education. 'They believe that whatever little their children manage to learn in school is enough. Most parents only check whether their child has passed or failed,' he added. Abdul Qayom Khan, principal of a government school in Kupwama, Kashmir said that students in his school are from different language backgrounds. Not all understand Hindi, Urdu or English, thus teaching class 3 the basic concepts of addition-subtraction in their native language poses obstacles for teachers and for students both. They are also first generation learners so 'the school does not expect parental support….students showing up to the class is the most ambitious expectation we hold,' Mr. Khan added. While in Kashmir, the political disturbances can take a toll on students' learning, elsewhere in India, other external factors such as transport connectivity, lack of infrastructure, harsh weather, irregular availability or unwillingness of teachers to work in remote locations, and seasonal agricultural work often takes priority over education. A non-profit intervention Avinash Verma, who works as a Programme Officer in Patra, Dhar (Madhya Pradesh) with the SRF Foundation, shared that a CSR programme of the company in partnership with the government has adopted several government schools with the aim of transforming them into model schools. The SRF Foundation is the social responsibility arm of SRF Ltd., working to improve the quality of education in government schools across India. 'Our first priority is to develop or repair the school's infrastructure then we move toward strengthening the academic structure,' Mr. Verma said. Their efforts include teacher training, setting up computer labs, digital classrooms, Science labs, and creating subject-specific reading corners. They also ensure the availability of equipment and stationery needed for academic activities. 'It is equally important to build teachers' capabilities to make full use of these facilities, and that's why we focus on teacher training and hold regular competitions. The recognition and involvement motivate teachers,' he added. He further explained that SRF volunteers hold regular meetings with the village sarpanch, Anganwadi workers, teachers, and parents to assess the school's needs and align efforts accordingly. These community meetings have helped in regular interactions between parents and teachers, as well as the attendance count of every student. 'Some parents argue that teachers aren't teaching, and so they stop sending their children to school. These kinds of doubts often come up and are openly addressed in the meetings,' he said. Mr. Verma talks about a common issue observed on the ground: 'Sometimes students lie to teachers, saying their parents asked them to come home early, and then tell their parents that the teachers weren't present. These situations lead to misunderstandings, but regular communication helps us tackle them.' He noted that hygiene, clean bathrooms, water availability, internet availability, and quality of mid-day meal keep the parents enthusiastic about sending their children to school. 'We take time to explain to parents that the teachers in government schools are well-qualified and have cleared competitive exams, unlike many in private schools,' he said. 'To build trust, we even invite them to join the children for a mid-day meal at school so they can see the quality of food being served.' The role of School Management Committees Sometimes, a pro-active School Management Committee (SMC) can turn things around such as in the Corporation Elementary School in Mogappair, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Ms Krishnaveni, Headmaster of the school, shared that the SMC associated with her school comprises 25 members, including educationists, volunteer parents, and community volunteers. The school runs classes from kindergarten to Grade 5 and currently includes 25 children with special needs, including students with autism. 'Interested parents join the committee as volunteers and that way they help their child and other children too through the daily tasks of reading and writing,' Ms. Krishnaveni said. What sets this school apart is the everyday involvement of at least six to seven parents who come in to assist students with reading and writing. The school also conducts special coaching classes for both children with special needs and others in core subjects like Maths, English, and Tamil, for two and a half hours daily. Supported by the Tamil Nadu government, the school has been provided with workbooks and learning materials - the SMC enhances this further by creating laminated grammar and Math activity sheets, promoting newspaper reading, and sharing library books to improve students' reading habits. They also engage students in practicing tongue twisters in Tamil and English to help develop vocabulary and improve speech, especially for students with special needs. Ms Krishnaveni said that the government conducted the FLN assessment in November 2024 for Classes 3 and 5. From Class 3, 20 students were selected through a government lottery system to take the test. The results of the assessment are yet to be announced. However, Ms. Krishnaveni went a step further. Once the selected 20 students completed the assessment, she conducted the same test for the rest of the class as well, comprising 40 students. 'This was to understand where each student stands and to identify who needs additional attention.' She noted that among the 40 students in Class 3, three have autism and five are on the dyslexia spectrum. Despite these challenges, she said the majority of students performed well. 'About 90% of them did well, though 10% struggled with English. For those students, we're currently holding special English support classes after school,' she added. She also pointed out that 20 students have shown advanced writing skills. Ms. Krishnaveni mentioned the importance of community involvement in a child's learning journey. 'It's not just the teachers. We have coaching volunteers, parents, and even school staff like sweepers stepping in to help. One of our sweepers conducts drawing classes to keep the students engaged and reduce boredom,' she shared. 'I strongly believe that one teacher alone can't make a difference. We need a group, a community, that supports students daily, helping them achieve the basics,' Ms. Krishnaveni said. Statewide FLN missions The Central Square Foundation (CSF), a non-profit dedicated to enhancing students' learning outcomes through its system-level interventions and State partnerships, works with 11 State governments as a technical support partner to design and implement statewide FLN missions. Ms Shaveta Sharma-Kukreja, CEO & MD, says these collaborations support States in creating roadmaps, developing content, strengthening teacher capacity, and building monitoring systems to ensure the effectiveness of FLN efforts on the ground. CSF also advocates for a community-led approach to improving learning outcomes, aligning closely with the goals of the NIPUN Bharat Mission. Ms. Shaveta noted that CFS is developing easy-to-understand communication materials, supporting States in conducting FLN-focused SMC orientation sessions, conducting training for headmasters and mentors, as well as supporting the State in organising parent-teachers meetings. 'The success of the NIPUN Bharat Mission is not just a government priority, but to achieve its objectives, it needs to follow a whole-of-society approach and be energised by members of the community,' she said. Ms. Shaveta further notes, 'By equipping SMCs with the right knowledge and tools, and empowering parents, we aim to make them true partners in ensuring that every child in Grades 1-3 can read with understanding and solve basic Math problems.'
