Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) CEO Stephen Gniel has revealed in a statement the problems started about 9:20am (AEDT).
“We became aware of a technical issue which was affecting students being able to log on to the online platform to complete their NAPLAN assessments,” he said.
“This issue was urgently investigated by the technology provider, Education Services Australia, who provide the platform.”
Testing was paused at affected schools and students escorted out of exam halls to wait for further instruction.
Due to time differences, Western Australian schools had not started testing for the day.
“While at this stage I am unable to say how many students were affected by this incident, I can confirm that, as Year 3 students complete their NAPLAN writing tests on paper, these students were not impacted,” Gniel said.
“We also know from the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority that as of 11:30 Queensland time about 100,000 Queensland students in Years 5, 7 and 9 had completed the writing test.”
Education Services Australia confirmed the issue had been resolved and testing was able to be resumed just after 11am Sydney time.
Schools resumed NAPLAN assessments at about 11.30am with Education Services Australia monitoring for any further issues.
“We apologise for the disruption to students and schools, and thank them for their patience,” an Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) spokesperson said at the time.
9News.com.au understands some 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.”
Gniel confirmed ACARA is working with Test Administration Authorities to provide affected schools with advice to minimise any impact on students.
Measures have also been put in place to students are not disadvantaged as a result of this morning’s chaos.
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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