The 2022 NAPLAN results have been released, and it’s grave viewing for a majority of the schools in Broken Hill, compared to the Australian and NSW average.
A series of tests given to students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, NAPLAN provides a snapshot of their reading, writing, language – spelling and grammar – and numeracy skills, with the data showing Sydney’s north is leading the charge, but in Far West NSW, students scored 18.3% less on average across the state.
The best-performing primary school in town is Sacred Heart Parish School, which averaged 407.0 in Year 3 results and 497.0 in Year 5 results. The top-performing high school in Broken Hill is Willyama High School, averaging 500.4 in Year 7 results and 534.6 in Year 9 results.
In NSW, the average score for primary school students in Year 3 was 431.6, and 504.0 for students in Year 5. Year 7 students across the state averaged 546.2, and for Year 9 students in NSW, an average score of 579.2 was achieved.
Across the entire country, Year 3 students scored 422.1 on average, and for Year 5 students, it was an average score of 497.1. For Year 7 students Australia-wide, the average score was 539.8, while students in Year 9 averaged 574.4.
Barwon’s state Labor candidate, Joshua Roberts-Garnsey – a teacher himself – says, “the data is clear” that the result of a statewide teacher shortage is having an effect on students’ school and NAPLAN results in regional areas.
“The data’s clear that teachers are overworked and that educational standards with NAPLAN and so on, they are clearly falling and we are going to have a workforce that are not prepared for the workforce, with basic fundamental skills like reading, writing and arithmetic.
“Whenever you see the Teach NSW jobs, you see a lot of those are regional jobs and if we can’t have consistent classroom teachers, the kids’ antisocial behaviour increases, frankly. I hear stories from other schools out west where things are just as bad,” Mr Roberts-Garnsey said.
“If you can’t have consistency in the classroom, and if there’s no sort of consistent teacher challenging students’ behaviour, then frankly, learning, and then pushing kids to achieve their best, it kind of comes second to basically behaviour management.
“It’s not surprising the data suggests kids in the west are achieving less if we can’t have a consistent work, and a consistent flow of teachers out here.”
Education Minister, Sarah Mitchell, when presented with the data of schools in regional and rural areas of the state falling behind on NAPLAN results, on a radio interview last month said, “there’s a few challenges”.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’re investing in our regional schools, but we’ve also got to make sure that we understand that things are different,” she said.
“One of the things we’ve really invested heavily in is more support for internet and technology to help bridge that gap by using the digital way, we’re looking at how we can provide more support to teachers in those communities and targeted support to those kids.
“There’s some great outcomes from NAPLAN that we’re reporting on, some schools who have done an amazing job including some schools in the regions and that’s why we’ve got things like our Ambassadors School Program, Sharing The Best of the Best, a number of those schools are the in the bush too. We’ve got to talk about the positives, of which many do exist.”
To view your school’s NAPLAN results, visit https://www.myschool.edu.au.
