Parents told to interpret NAPLAN writing results with care after outage disrupted tests in some states

Parents across Australia are being forewarned that students’ results from national writing tests may have been affected by technical disruptions which marred the first day of testing earlier this year.

Individual students’ results are set to be released in coming weeks for kids in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 who took part in the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy testing in March.

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, which sets the tests, is adding a rider this year that writing results should be “interpreted with care” for all students in Years 5, 7 and 9.

“NAPLAN results should always be interpreted with care,” the reports will say.

“This is important for writing results in 2026 because some students experienced disruptions during the online writing test due to connectivity issues. Your child’s teacher will have the best insight into your child’s educational progress.”

ACARA has also agreed not to report the mean scores for writing from schools in NSW and South Australia, which will prevent comparisons between similar schools in other states, including WA.

The writing component of the assessments was thrown into chaos in some states when a problem prevented many students from logging on to the online platform to start their tests at the intended time.

West Australian students were unaffected by the glitch, which was resolved before their tests got under way.

ACARA chief executive Stephen Gniel said the “unfortunate disruption” on day one of testing had affected students differently, even if they were in the same class.

“That’s why ACARA has included a caveat on the 2026 writing results for students in Years 5, 7 and 9, on the individual student reports that parents and carers will receive for their child, which notes that the results should be interpreted with care given the disruptions,” he said.

“We made this decision in consultation with independent experts, and our partners in each state and territory.

“Year 3 students were unaffected as they completed the test on paper.”

Mr Gniel said similar caveats would also be included when the national NAPLAN results are released in August.

ACARA confirmed most assessments were completed as scheduled once the platform issue was resolved, despite the outage affecting a significant number of schools.

It had validated the data to ensure this year’s results could be reported to schools and parents.

“ACARA recognises the exceptional efforts of teachers and principals around the country who supported our students to complete their NAPLAN assessments this year, especially given the disruptions to testing on day one,” Mr Gniel said.