The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (Acara) has apologised unreservedly after a technical glitch halted the first day of Naplan testing for a significant number of schools. The issue, identified at 9.20am local time, prevented students from logging into the online platform for their writing assessments.
Acara chief executive Stephen Gniel confirmed the problem was resolved by 11.15am, with schools instructed to resume testing at 11.30am. However, some schools chose to postpone the tests while others proceeded, raising concerns about fairness. Around 1.4 million students were expected to sit the test this year.
Shadow education minister Julian Leeser wrote to federal education minister Jason Clare, asking how fairness would be ensured for students whose tests were interrupted. “This failure could skew the entire dataset,” he said. Clare rebuked Gniel, stating “this is not good enough”.
Gniel thanked state and territory test administrators for resuming testing but was unable to confirm the exact number of students affected. Western Australian schools had not yet started due to time differences, while about 100,000 Queensland students in years 5, 7 and 9 had completed their tests by 11.30am.
Education expert Vitomir Kovanovic from Adelaide University described the situation as a “really unfortunate mess”, warning it may appear unfair that some students completed the test while others could not. Schools posted on social media about delays, with some postponing to the following day.
Acara stated it is working to minimise impact and ensure no student is disadvantaged. A full technical investigation by Education Services Australia has been promised.
