WA children sitting their national literacy and numeracy tests have dodged problems impacting students in other states with the help of the big time difference between the west and east coasts.
The online platform for the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy test crashed for around 30 minutes on Thursday morning, disrupting the assessment at many schools across Australia.
Fortunately, schools in WA were not affected by the incident, which occurred before testing started for the day.
WA is three hours behind NSW and Victoria and two hours behind Queensland.
A spokesperson for the Australian Curriculum, Assessment, Assessment and Reporting Authority said it was aware of an incident that affected the NAPLAN test platform early on Thursday.
“Action has been taken to address the technical issue,” they said. “Schools have been advised and are able to continue testing.”
It comes as some schools in Queensland and northern NSW impacted by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred delayed starting their assessments for a week.
Around 1.3 million children across Australia in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are expected to sit the NAPLAN tests in writing, reading, numeracy and language conventions this year.
The test program started with writing on Wednesday. Most schools scheduled the reading section of the test on Thursday.
All tests are conducted online, except for Year 3 writing.
This year, students in Years 5, 7 and 9 will complete a second NAPLAN cycle for the first time since the annual test changed from being held in March instead of May and new proficiency levels were introduced.
The new trend data will allow schools to see how students have progressed between 2023 and this year.
Preliminary results will be available to schools early in term two, with full results released to parents in term three.
https://thewest.com.au/news/education/naplan-time-lag-helps-wa-students-dodge-glitches-with-online-test-c-18027527
