The 2026 NAPLAN results for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 released today show the Minns Labor Government is failing our students on the basics of reading, writing and numeracy.
\u00a0
Some of the damning NAPLAN results include:
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0the number of NSW Year 3 students needing additional support for numeracy increasing by over a quarter in the three years since NSW Labor came to office
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0increases over last year, and in the three years since NSW Labor came to office, in the numbers of students needing additional support in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 for reading and writing
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0around 30 per cent of NSW Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students not meeting national benchmarks for reading, writing and numeracy.
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0NSW being outperformed by Victoria, the closest comparable state, on 11 of the 12 NAPLAN averages for reading, writing and numeracy.
\u00a0
Leader of the Opposition Kellie Sloane said the Minns Labor Government should stop congratulating itself and focus on the children who are being left behind.
\u00a0
\u201cEvery parent expects their child to develop strong foundations in reading and writing, but almost one in ten Year 3 students in NSW now require additional support in reading, with the proportion also rising in writing,\u201d Ms Sloane said.
\u00a0
\u201cImprovement at the top cannot be used to ignore a growing problem at the bottom.”
\u00a0
Shadow Minister for Education Mark Speakman said the Government\u2019s failure to improve reading, writing and numeracy outcomes is undermining confidence in public schools.
\u00a0
\u201cThe Government seems to have thrown in the towel \u2013 this year\u2019s Budget cuts education employee expenses by around five per cent after inflation and assumes falling public school enrolments and teacher numbers,” Mr Speakman said.
\u00a0
The Government must snap out of its complacency and urgently review its approach across the board including:
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0teaching methods for mathematics
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0initial and ongoing training of teaching maths
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0ensuring explicit teaching and phonics policies are actually being implemented
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0ensuring teachers are being given enough support for classroom behaviour management
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0ensuring technology is not being counter-productive in classrooms
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0support for children with disability
\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0the primary school mathematics curriculum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 2026 NAPLAN results for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 released today show the Minns Labor Government is failing our students on the basics of reading, writing and numeracy.\u00a0Some of the damning NAPLAN results include:\u00b7 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0the number of NSW Year 3 students needing additional support for numeracy increasing by over a … Continue reading “NAPLAN results show Minns Labor failing students”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40268,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40267\/revisions\/40268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}