The 2018 NAPLAN results showed that Australia students scored the lowest level since the introduction of national tests a decade ago. 

The underwhelming record revealed that more than one in five year 9 students are not meeting the minimum standard for writing. 

However, the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (ACARA) announced that the year 9 students who sat the writing test online performed better on average than those who sat the test via pen and paper. 

“The difference may be due to students at this year level having greater confidence writing online than on paper, as well as students’ ability to readily review and edit their work online in a way that is not possible with a pen-and-paper test,” ACARA said in a statement. 

In addition, Deputy dean of Western Sydney Dr Katrina Zammit said that the results reflected the amount of time students spent communicating online and on social media. 

“Students are not creating print-based writing, and those handwriting skills that involve pen and paper seem to have bene lost in terms of the interest of these students as well,” Dr Zammit said. 

“However hopefully the online mode of writing is engaging students and demonstrating the actual achievement of these students now,” she added. 

Further, for numeracy, more than 95 per cent of year 9 students in all states except the NT met the benchmark. 

For reading, 92 per cent of year 9 students in QLD, SA and TAS met the benchmark. 94 per cent met the benchmark in NSW and VIC, and ACT achieved the highest with 97 per cent.