SYDNEY, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The writing ability of Australian students is in "troubling decline," according to a national report revealed on Tuesday.
The study, conducted by the Australian Education and Research Organisation (AERO), an independent education evidence body, looked at more than 10 million writing results from the National Assessment Program -- Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), an annual assessment of literacy and numeracy skills, undertaken with students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, as well as 366 samples of students' NAPLAN writing.
Analysis of the writing data, spanning 2011 to 2021, found that average scores for persuasive writing have declined since 2011 with the trend more pronounced in Years 7 and 9.
Over the period of 2011 to 2018, the share of Year 5, 7 and 9 students who are performing at or below national minimum standards, has increased, with 6 percentage points for Year 5 students and 8 percentage points for Year 9.
For all criteria except spelling, the percentage of Years 5, 7 and 9 students who achieve a high NAPLAN score has also decreased.
AERO CEO Jenny Donovan said this is the most extensive analysis of students' writing that has been conducted in Australia, which shows a troubling decline.
"Student writing scores are consistently lower than expected of their year level. They are not writing as well as students once could in the same year level, nor as well as our curriculum says they should, and older students are experiencing the sharpest decline," she said in a related analytical article.
Donovan said there are several possible reasons for these drops such as a short supply of time and access to effective professional learning in teaching writing.
The report listed out several suggestions for policy makers and urged for a quick action to address the problem.
"We must accept that education practices need urgent change for students to be able to write well. Teaching writing should continue throughout schooling, so student skills increase to match the growing complexity of ideas and concepts that they need to think and write about," said Donovan. ■