Roundup: Literacy, numeracy skills of Aussie students have "plateaued": statistics

The literacy and numeracy proficiency of Australian students has plateaued despite record levels of federal government funding, the latest results showed Wednesday.

Released by the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), the results showed Australian students had not improved on their 2015 results, prompting Minister for Education Simon Birmingham to release a statement which said, while there was no overall decline in the results, the plateau was not good enough.

He said the government would focus on "evidence-based" measures to get better results of a wide range of year levels -- from year 3 up to year 9.

"This NAPLAN data clearly shows that while strong levels of investment in schools are important, it's more important to ensure that funding is being used on initiatives proven to boost student results," Birmingham said on Wednesday.

"We need to focus on evidence based measures that will get results for our students because today's results once again show that, despite significant funding growth, we are not getting sufficient improvements in student outcomes.

"That's why the Turnbull government has clear, evidence-based policies focused on quality educational outcomes for our children."

According to the Education Department, the NAPLAN results showed an increase in reading scores of just 0.40 percent since 2013, a decrease in writing scores of 0.20 percent and an increase in numeracy of 1.26 percent across all year levels.

In that time, there has been a 23.7 percent increase in federal school funding.

Chief executive of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), Robert Randall, said the data was concerning, particularly given the record levels of funding in the education sector.

"When we look to last year there's not the sustained effort that we would like to be seeing on a year-to-year basis, so we're a bit concerned it's leveling off, that's not what anyone wants to see," Randall told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Meanwhile education experts have questioned the need for the NAPLAN testing, with the University of Canberra's Misty Adoniou slamming the lack of progress despite the implementation of the tests.

"It makes you wonder why we're doing NAPLAN, because I think the rationale was to show us where our weaknesses were so we could intervene and make improvement," Adoniou told the ABC.

"We've now had five years of NAPLAN results in writing and we're either staying where we are or going backwards, so something's not working."

Birmingham said the government would continue to invest more money into education, as educated workers would be the cornerstone of Australia's economic future.

"Of course investment in our schools is important, which is why we will continue to grow funding from a record 12 billion U.S. dollars this year to 15 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, all to be allocated based on need," Birmingham said.

"Our funding growth is sustainable but will be tied to a range of evidence-based initiatives to support students by focusing on outcomes in literacy, numeracy and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects, helping lift teacher quality and better preparing our children for life after school."

According to the results, students in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) scored best for reading and grammar, while Victorian students had the best writing and numeracy scores. Students in Queensland and Western Australia continued to show the most improvement across the board. Endit