NSW push to revert to pen-and-paper NAPLAN tests backed by experts

Education experts have backed a push to return NAPLAN writing tests to pen and paper, eight years after the national test first moved online.

The New South Wales government will today ask national education ministers to scrap computer-based writing tests for year 5, 7 and 9 students from 2028.

Currently, only year 3 students complete the writing test on paper, while older students sit it on a computer.

Reading, numeracy, spelling, grammar and punctuation are tested online for all year levels.

NAPLAN first moved to online testing in 2018 to allow more precise testing and faster results.

NSW Deputy Premier and Education Minister Prue Car said recent results showed a national decline in writing skills and argued prolonged technology use in schools was affecting learning.

In a statement, she said building "strong foundational writing skills" would set students up for "long-term success".

"We're listening to teachers and families who want a sensible, balanced approach to technology use in schools,"

she said.

The proposal needs the support of the Commonwealth, states and territories to go ahead.

'Counterproductive'

University of Sydney associate professor Marian Vidal-Fernandez supported the proposal, but said the move to online testing should not have happened in the first place.

"Then we would not be here again," she said.

The economist said most primary classroom work across the country was still done by hand, and students should be tested the same way.

"Doing the exam in the same way that they work in class should … benefit the average student,"

she said.

Overseas research from Portugal and the United States, she added, showed results tended to fall when the same children moved from handwritten to computer-based tests.

"We are actually asking the children about some skills that they might not be trained for," she said.

"This typing is going to be harder the younger you are."

Edith Cowan University associate professor Anabela Malpique, who has for a decade researched how writing is taught, also agreed with the move.

She said research showed handwriting was important for learning and memory.

"Thinking with a pencil, as we used to say, is very, very critical," she said.

Cost, timing and typing

Dr Vidal-Fernandez said the cost of marking handwritten papers could be a barrier to rolling out the change nationally.

But she suggested AI tools could now read handwritten work, with humans checking results that were unclear.

"It should be doable with the technology that we have at the moment," she said.

Dr Malpique said the change would be easier in primary schools, where handwriting remained the focus, but that secondary schools would need more planning because students were more likely to work on computers.

She said a return to paper-based testing could also affect how typing was taught in schools.

Her national surveys of primary teachers found only nine minutes a week were spent teaching keyboard skills, compared with 31 minutes a week for handwriting.

"We need to support students to become hybrid writers,"

she said.

Both experts said students with learning difficulties and additional needs should be considered and would need accommodations.

"We should not do a one-size-fits-all type of policy," Dr Vidal-Fernandez said.