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Stephen Gniel addressing the 2025 SMH Schools Summit.Credit:Edwina Pickles

About 1.3 million students across years 3,5,7 and 9 will next week sit NAPLAN,the national literacy and numeracy tests. It is the third year children will sit the tests in March after a major review recommended the assessments be brought forward from term two.

Last year,results were delivered within four weeks to schools for the first time,except for the writing tests,which take longer to mark. Parents typically receive results from the March tests in July,

Gniel said the proposed changes “will ensure that national assessments are not just a measure of progress but a tool,amongst others,for action”. The fast-tracking of results will be driven through “innovations in assessment delivery” including the move to online testing,as well as “AI-driven approaches”.

The change is intended to improve student outcomes by allowing even earlier intervention from schools that could integrate results into teaching.

“Data from these assessments is invaluable. It helps teachers tailor their approaches,informs whole-school strategies,and guides system-wide policy decisions. It also provides transparency,giving the Australian community a clear view of how we are tracking,” Gniel said.

“Without these assessments,we would be blind at a national level ... to how well we are meeting our educational goals.”

This year will be the first time individual students’ progress can be compared after a shift to using four proficiency bands. Last year a third of students failed to meet basic benchmarks.

The opening address at the Schools Summit came from Education Minister Prue Car,who spoke about building schools in the city’s western suburbs,saying that Parramatta had become the “centre of the city” and that many people had moved to the area from overseas with the promise “that there will be a high-quality school nearby”.

Secretary of the Department of Education Murat Dizdar also gave a wide-ranging speech in which he spoke against a systemic “push” towards university education,citing skills shortages in Australia’s job market.

Dizdar said the “best measure” of a diversified schooling system would be for every student to end up “after 13 years of schooling” in universities,TAFE or employment.

NSW Education Department secretary Murat Dizdar at the SMH Schools Summit on Wednesday.Credit:Rhett Wyman

Dizdar criticised the role of coaching colleges in selective school preparation saying they were “unnecessary” and that parents should “back in their teachers” after the department overhauled the test to make it less coachable.

The secretary also said that controversial topics should be taught in schools “as long as it’s in line with the curriculum”,and balance is given to different perspectives,noting that schools were not “cut off from society”.

Asked about arecent student protest at Granville Boys High,Dizdar said:“What I can guarantee is that we’re always being politically neutral,we’ve reminded our workforce numerous times. That’s our stance.”

During a panel on explicit teaching and thestate’s new knowledge-based curriculum,NSW Education Standards Authority chief executive Paul Martin said the recent establishment of a quality assurance oversight board provided the school standards body with “a little bit more teeth” to manage the initial teacher education programs taught at universities.

“There is a balance between the individual university having its own views academically expressed,and the expectations of the teachers of the schools,the children and the systems that they are going to be employed[in].”

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