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This morning, testing at various schools came to an abrupt halt as students were ushered out of exam rooms to await further guidance. The interruption was due to a technical issue that briefly affected schools across the nation.
Fortunately, the problem has now been rectified. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) spokesperson confirmed that NAPLAN testing is back on track after the widespread glitch temporarily prevented students from accessing the online platform necessary for their assessments.
In an official statement, the spokesperson expressed apologies for the inconvenience caused to both students and schools and extended gratitude for their patience during the disruption. They also assured that the issue has been resolved and communicated to the schools, allowing the testing to continue without further delay.
“We apologise for the disruption to students and schools, and thank them for their patience.
“The issue has now been resolved, and schools have been informed they can resume testing.
“We continue to monitor the platform to ensure students are able to complete their assessments without further issues.”
Earlier today the spokesperson said the issue was being urgently investigated by Education Services Australia, which runs the online assessment platform.
Year 5, 7 and 9 students were supposed to complete their writing test today.
9News.com.au understands some NSW students were able to log in and access test questions before the exam was paused.
A student from Arden Anglican School in NSW called the crash catastrophic.
They told 9News.com.au students had seen the questions for the writing test and had spent up to seven minutes writing when the test suddenly paused.
9News.com.au also understands the NSW Education Standards Authority is regularly updating NSW schools with ACARA’s latest advice
Another student from a school in Victoria said everyone in their class lost connection about 20 minutes into the writing exam.
“The system kept flickering between ‘test paused’ and ‘reconnecting,’” they told 9News.com.au.
“After about 15 minutes of this, our teachers told us to sign out.
“We were informed that the test would be moved to another day and that the progress we had already completed was lost.”
More than 1.3 million students were supposed to begin sitting the 2026 NAPLAN test in schools across Australia from today.
Shortly after 9am, reports of technical issues began filtering through on social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter).
NAPLAN is an annual national assessment for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.
It is held across a nine-day period every March, though not all students are tested on the same days.
Some assessments, such as the writing test for Year 3 students, are still completed on paper but most NAPLAN tests are completed through an online assessment platform now.
The platform is designed to be compliant with government and industry security, privacy and accessibility standards.
“No student is disadvantaged if their device stops working during the test,” the National Assessment Program website reads.
“In the event the device stops working, all responses will have been saved and the student can complete their test on another device or in a rescheduled test session.”
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