For the first time since NAPLAN testing began, South Australia has improved or held its position in every domain compared with the rest of the country.
South Australia climbed the national rankings in nine of the test areas – including all numeracy assessments – and remained steady in the remaining domains. Nine was more than any other state and territory and we were the only jurisdiction that did not go back in any areas.
NAPLAN testing took place in March this year, with more than 80,300 students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 assessed on reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy.
With the new proficiency levels introduced in 2023, these NAPLAN results can be directly compared with results from 2023 and 2024, with four levels of proficiency – exceeding, strong, developing or needs additional support.
The introduction of the Malinauskas Labor Government's maths improvement strategy – including updating the curriculum, bringing in numeracy checks and starting an annual Numeracy Summit – has led to an overall increase in numeracy results with a higher proportion of students with strong or exceeding proficiency since 2023.
The comparison of the results of the 2023 year 3 students with the data from this year, provide an indication of the progress the students have made during their in primary education:
- In 2023, 64.4 per cent of year 3 students were strong or exceeding in reading, whereas in 2025 69.6 per cent of year 5 students are in those categories.
- In 2023, 59.1 per cent of year 3 students were strong or exceeding in numeracy, whereas in 2025 it was 64.7 per cent of the year 5 cohort.
- In 2023, 48.7 per cent of year 3 students were strong or exceeding in grammar and punctuation, whereas in 2025 57.9 per cent of year 5 students are in those categories.
- In 2023, 60.5 per cent of year 3 students were strong or exceeding in spelling, and in 2025, 67.5 per cent of year 5 students are in those categories.
Writing was the only category which saw a reduction in the strong or exceeding categories between the students who tested in 2023 as year 3 students and Year 5 students in 2025 – a drop reflected in all jurisdictions.
The results, released by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) today on its website, reflect statewide data with individual school results to come later in the year.
Parents and carers of students who took this year's NAPLAN assessment have been provided with an individual student report of their child's results. Along with other school assessment reports, they can use the individual reports to discuss their child's progress with their teacher.
As put by Blair Boyer
South Australia is leading education reform by being innovative and following evidence-based learning.
We are starting to see the results of our early investments in curriculum and mental health and wellbeing support – and highlights why the recent Gonski agreement was so critical – so we can invest more in the supports and programs that are making a real difference to academic achievement.
When I became Minister, I was worried about how well younger students were picking up core maths skills, which is why we got to work updating the curriculum, bringing in numeracy checks for all year 1 students and introduced a yearly numeracy summit. So, it's really encouraging to now see more students landing in the top two bands for numeracy.
These test results are just one measure of school and student success, but it is reassuring to see that the work our schools and teachers are putting in is paying off, and that parents have access to some information about how their child is tracking at school.
As put by Flagstaff Hill Primary School Principal Donella Munro
While the NAPLAN results are just one tool we use to track how our students are going, I believe our school's positive outcomes, particularly reflecting each student's learning journey over the last two years, shows we're on the right track.
At Flagstaff Hill Primary School, we have a strong focus on reading, which is reflected in both our NAPLAN results and our excellent phonics results. That explicit, evidence-based teaching then underpins our student's numeracy testing, by supporting their ability to read and comprehend the test itself.
We also have an emphasis on supporting our neurodivergent learners to ensure the best learning outcomes for all our students – and it's nice to see that the work we are doing is having a positive impact.
