Kellie Sloane
Leader of the Opposition
NSW Liberal Leader
Mark Speakman
Shadow Minister for Education
The 2026 NAPLAN results for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 released today show the Minns Labor Government is failing our students on the basics of reading, writing and numeracy.
Some of the damning NAPLAN results include:
· the number of NSW Year 3 students needing additional support for numeracy increasing by over a quarter in the three years since NSW Labor came to office
· increases over last year, and in the three years since NSW Labor came to office, in the numbers of students needing additional support in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 for reading and writing
· around 30 per cent of NSW Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students not meeting national benchmarks for reading, writing and numeracy.
· NSW being outperformed by Victoria, the closest comparable state, on 11 of the 12 NAPLAN averages for reading, writing and numeracy.
Leader of the Opposition Kellie Sloane said the Minns Labor Government should stop congratulating itself and focus on the children who are being left behind.
“Every parent expects their child to develop strong foundations in reading and writing, but almost one in ten Year 3 students in NSW now require additional support in reading, with the proportion also rising in writing,” Ms Sloane said.
“Improvement at the top cannot be used to ignore a growing problem at the bottom.”
Shadow Minister for Education Mark Speakman said the Government’s failure to improve reading, writing and numeracy outcomes is undermining confidence in public schools.
“The Government seems to have thrown in the towel – this year’s Budget cuts education employee expenses by around five per cent after inflation and assumes falling public school enrolments and teacher numbers,” Mr Speakman said.
The Government must snap out of its complacency and urgently review its approach across the board including:
· teaching methods for mathematics
· initial and ongoing training of teaching maths
· ensuring explicit teaching and phonics policies are actually being implemented
· ensuring teachers are being given enough support for classroom behaviour management
· ensuring technology is not being counter-productive in classrooms
· support for children with disability
· the primary school mathematics curriculum.
