Penny Wright (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Lundy, the Minister representing the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth. With the sixth year of NAPLAN testing happening this week, there is a growing campaign among parents, teachers and academics to boycott NAPLAN. National rates of withdrawal from NAPLAN tests have been growing, with year 3 mathematics exam rates increasing nearly fourfold since 2008. At the same time, research by the University of Melbourne last year showed that approximately 73 per cent of teachers reported teaching to the test, at the cost of other subjects that NAPLAN does not address. My question is: is the government concerned by the level of dissatisfaction with the program while it absorbs such a large proportion of educators' time and resources?