Basic literacy skills and the gap between male and female students by year 9
The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests have been conducted across Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in Australia since 2008. The national minimum standard (NMS) is the 'agreed minimum acceptable standard of knowledge and skills without which a student will have difficulty making sufficient progress at school'. Here we look at the percentage of male and female year 9 students at or above the NMS for Reading and Writing, over time.
Source: Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA].
(2022). National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy, achievement in reading, writing and numeracy: National Report for 2022. ACARA.
male students female students
Key
Reading
% at or above NMS
91.5 91.6 89.6 91.6 89.4 87.0 86.5
94.4 94.2 93.8 95.3 94.2 92.6 92.9
Writing
% at or above NMS 79.0 76.9 75.4 73.3 76.4 76.6 79.2
91.0 89.3 88.1 86.1 88.7 88.1 89.3
2008 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022
2011 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022
A greater proportion of female students
are achieving at or above the NMS for
Reading and Writing.
In Reading, the gap has increased from 2.2% in 2016 to
6.4% in 2022. In Writing the gap
between female and male students has
closed from a high of 12.8% in 2018 to
11.1% in 2022. Will these trends
continue in 2023?
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