Victorian students were the only Australian cohort to go backwards in a prestigious international reading exam, after experiencing the longest periods of remote learning in the nation.
The 2021 progress in international reading literacy study (Pirls) test, released on Tuesday, measured trends in year 4 students’ reading literacy across 57 nations.
It found Australia’s overall results remained relatively stable compared with the most recent survey in 2016, ranking 11th overall, while Victoria was a notable outlier, with the average student score falling 14 points.
Nevertheless, Victorian students still achieved higher average scores than all Australian jurisdictions except the ACT.
Students from disadvantaged backgrounds, in remote areas and First Nations students also lagged behind the national average, with the gap failing to narrow since Australia first participated in the exam in 2011, while female students and those who came from households with large book collections outperformed their peers.
The Pirls national project manager for Australia, Kylie Hillman, said Victoria’s overall score had dropped as had the proportion of higher performing students in the state.
But she said the number of students achieving the national proficient standard had remained stable.
“Victorian students spent the longest periods of time in remote learning during the pandemic and had only recently returned to face-to-face learning at the time of the 2021 Pirls assessment,” she said.
Just under half of Australian students spent eight weeks or more in remote learning during the pandemic, compared with 100% of Victorian students.
Hillman said that “encouragingly”, the reading results for the same cohort of Victorian students when they took Naplan in 2022 were similar to the results for the previous cohort in 2021.
Australia’s average score in 2021 was 540 points, just shy of the “high” international benchmark of 550 points and similar to 2016 (544 points) and 2011 (527 points).
Students scored higher on average than nine- and 10-year-olds in 28 other participating countries and jurisdictions, including New Zealand, and ranked 11th overall.
Singapore achieved the highest average score (587), followed by Hong Kong, (573), the Russian Federation (567) and England (558) – all above the high benchmark.
One in every three students in Singapore reached the advanced benchmark – the highest level of reading comprehension - and just 3% were at the low benchmark.
Comparatively, one in five Australian year 4 students were reading at or below the low benchmark.
And while the average achievement of Australian students was above the proficient standard of reading, the results found that large achievement gaps for First Nations students and students studying remotely or from low socioeconomic backgrounds have not shifted.
Students who identified as having a First Nations background scored 491 points on average, more than 50 points below students from other backgrounds and close to the “low” benchmark of comprehension.
Similarly, Australian students in more disadvantaged schools scored 508 points on average, more than 50 points lower than students in more affluent schools (562 points) and major cities (546).
Students in remote areas scored lowest, at 485 points, just shy of the low benchmark.
“Students in year 4 are at a key transition point in their schooling, moving from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’.
“Support for students who find reading challenging is essential to prevent them falling behind in other learning areas, as more of their schooling draws on their reading skills.”
Nationally, eight in 10 Australian students met the proficient standard, including 14% who were at the advanced benchmark and 34% who reached the high benchmark.
Students in the Australian Capital Territory scored higher on average than all other jurisdictions at 560 points, and also had the highest proportion of students at the advanced benchmark (19%) after halving the proportion of children at the lowest reading level since the 2016 survey.
It was followed by Victoria (545), New South Wales (541) and Queensland (540). The Northern Territory ranked at the bottom of the list, with an average score of 516.
Hillman said the ACT’s success warranted further investigation to improve the “really concerning” Australian cohort struggling to reach proficient standards.
“The goal is every child is able to make the most of their opportunities and achieve as best as they can … we have to do whatever we can to make that possible for them.”
The test found girls performed significantly better than boys in 38 of the participating nations, including Australia, where 84% met or exceeded the proficient reading standard, compared with 77% of boys.
How many books students had in the home and how much they enjoyed reading also played a key factor in score outcomes.
Year 4 students with many books in the home [a measure of economic mobility] were more likely to be in the high benchmark, scoring 566 points on average compared with those with a few books in the home, who scored an average of 506 points.
The 29% of year 4 students who very much liked reading scored significantly higher than the quarter who didn’t, as did students who somewhat enjoyed it.
