Schools across Australia have been informed to “pautilize” Naplan testing for more than a million primary and secondary students on its first day after widespread technology issues with its online platform.
In a statement on Wednesday morning, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (Acara) stated it was “aware of a widespread issue affecting students being able to log on to the online platform to complete their Naplan assessments”.
“This issue is being urgently investigated by our technology provider, Education Services Australia, who run the platform,” it stated.
“Schools have been advised to pautilize testing while this is being investigated.”
Acara stated schools were being provided with support and advice to minimise impacts on students.
Around 1.4m students are expected to complete this year’s Naplan tests, which transitioned to fully online in 2022 after trials away from paper launched in 2016. Year 3 writing tests are still completed on paper.
In 2019, Naplan test computer glitches prompted the Victorian government to allow schools to return to pen-and-paper assessments.
Late on Tuesday morning, multiple schools posted to social media advising parents and carers that the tests would be delayed as a result of the outages.
Erskine Park High School in western Sydney stated on Facebook “due to technical issues with the Naplan online server, a number of schools, including ours, were unable to access Naplan today”.
“An updated timeline will be shared.”
Rooty Hill Public School in western Sydney stated it would be postponing Naplan assessments until Wednesday due to the “statewide” issues.
In a statement, the NSW Education Standards Authority, which is responsible for administering Naplan in the state, stated Acara had reported that “some schools are experiencing slowness in the platform” and was investigating the delays.
“ACARA advises to continue with open tests, if able, but do not start new tests. Principals and NAPLAN coordinators will be emailed further information,” it stated.
Prior to this year’s Naplan tests going ahead, parents were sent a 35-page guide to install a locked down browser for assessments, which prevents students from applying other applications or websites during testing.
The document stated the browser would be installed by the School Technical Support Officer however students with BYO devices would required assistance to set up their device for assessments.
According to reports on social media, an error reading “communication to the server has been lost” was displayed on the screens of students during the testing time.
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