Despite 28 weeks of remote learning, Victorian students have triumphed.

In NAPLAN scores, Victoria ranked first in all subjects across all year levels except year 9 writing, following the nationwide test conducted in May.

Year 3 students performed particularly well in Victoria ranking at the top for Reading, Numeracy, and Grammar and Punctuation, while Year 5s lead the nation in Reading, Numeracy, Writing, and Grammar and Punctuation.

Year 7 students improved in Reading, Writing and Spelling compared to 2019 – achieving the highest scores of any jurisdiction for the skills of Reading and Numeracy. Meanwhile, Year 9s topped the nation in Spelling.

Victorian students in Year 5 began Prep when the Labor Government started its Education State reforms, and are now seeing the benefits of six years of dedicated investment.

The number of Year 5s achieving in the top two bands for Reading has increased 36.9 per cent in 2015 to 45.5 per cent this year – a lift of almost 10 percentage points. That’s 13,000 more Year 3 and Year 5 students now working at the highest reading levels since 2015.

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Since 2015, the number of students in the bottom two bands for Reading has decreased by eight per cent at Year 5 and two per cent in Year 3 – that’s 8,100 more Victorian kids who now have the foundational literacy and numeracy skills to succeed in life.

In secondary schools, more students are achieving the top two bands of Reading compared to 2019 and there are less students in the bottom two bands.

For the first time, certificates will be awarded to Year 9 students who excel in NAPLAN or significantly improve their results, to recognise excellence and keep students engaged and motivated – with certificates going to almost 19,000 Year 9 students who are in the very top band of NAPLAN, or who significantly improved on their Year 7 results.

To help continue these results, the state government has made investments to support student learning and wellbeing, including $250 million to deploy more than 6,400 tutors across Victorian schools and a $28.5 boost to ensure students received health and wellbeing support.

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“These phenomenal results are more than statistics – they represent thousands of Victorian kids who will be afforded better opportunities through education, no matter where they live or what their background,” Victoria’s Education Minister James Merlino said,

“We’re so proud to be building a world-class education system that gives every student the opportunity to shine – and I want to thank every educator, principal, family and school community across Victoria for helping us get here.”

Results for individual schools will be released next week.