NATIONAL LITERACY AND NUMERACY TESTS

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:05): My question is for the Minister for Education. Why did South Australian year 3 students go backwards in writing, spelling and numeracy in this year's NAPLAN tests, when nationally we saw significant improvements in those same categories?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Education, Minister for Early Childhood Development, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (15:05): That is a reasonable question, and we are analysing the data to see what can be learnt from it. The truth is that the national system of testing has been in for a relatively short period in international terms. Many countries have longitudinal data which—

Mr Pisoni: It's the fourth year.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Yes it is, but it's relatively short in the scheme of things. We will look at the data and see what lessons can be learnt from it. That is the nature of the data, and it's very important that we scrutinise it, and that is what we are choosing to do.