NAPLAN ONLINE —
TECHNICAL ISSUES
996. Hon CHARLES SMITH to the Minister for Education and
Training:
I
refer to NAPLAN internet dropouts experienced at Arbor Grove Primary School,
Malvern Springs Primary School and Aveley Primary School in the East
Metropolitan Region, which have also advised me that their internet capability
is not sufficient to support the teaching of information and communications
technology general capabilities and the WA digital technologies curriculum. How
will the government support these and other schools that are without an NBN
connection to enable teachers to deliver a twenty-first century curriculum?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
The
NAPLAN issues experienced by Western Australian schools in 2019 were the result
of nationwide connectivity issues and were not caused by internet
availability or capacity issues in Western Australia. Between 2015 and 2018,
the Department of Education increased total fibre connected bandwidth capacity
by 66 per cent, with further increases planned to commence in late 2019.