More ACT students withdrawing from NAPLAN - ABC Online

Updated November 23, 2012 14:44:58

There has been a large increase in the number of Canberra parents withdrawing their children from national numeracy tests.

Save Our Schools has analysed the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) and found 4 per cent of year three students were withdrawn from numeracy tests in 2012.

That is compared to just 0.8 per cent in 2008 when NAPLAN began.

The withdrawal rate for year nine students rose from 0.3 per cent to 2.1 per cent.

The ACT withdrawal rate is the highest in the country.

Spokesman Trevor Cobbold says the increase could be due to a combination of factors.

"Parents are becoming increasingly aware that they have the right to withdraw their child, this is not generally advertised and education authorities around the country have gone out of their way to encourage the impression that these tests are mandatory," he said.

The rising withdrawal rate is not limited to the ACT, with all year levels across each state and territory showing an increase.

Mr Cobbold says decreasing participation will affect the reliability of the results.

"I've looked at some of the results of individual schools and for example one school in Canberra went from zero to 19 per cent of its kids being withdrawn. Now that's a dramatic increase," he said.

ACT Education Minister Joy Burch says she will work with schools and parents to increase student participation rates in the tests.

"When I look at the numbers about our local students that participated in NAPLAN what I saw is 17,500 that did the NAPLAN testing and it was about 580 children that didn't attend. Now that could have included a whole range of reasons about them just being unwell," she said.

Topics: primary-schools, act, canberra-2600

First posted November 23, 2012 13:05:08