Download the full report: Neither Better Nor Fairer
How inconsistent student assessment practices are undermining Australia’s national education goals
Australia has a national curriculum and a longstanding commitment to excellence and equity in education. Yet across the country, students are assessed against different academic standards, often under vastly different conditions.
While recent education reforms have focused on what students learn and how they are taught, far less attention has been given to how their learning is assessed.
Our latest report, Neither Better Nor Fairer, written by Stephen Hart and Raymond Burns, examines this neglected element of Australian education. The report argues that Australia’s national education goals of excellence and equity will remain out of reach without a reliable mechanism for ensuring students across the country are assessed against comparable academic standards.
Key Findings: Australia’s Assessment System Is Failing Students
Despite having a national curriculum, Australia lacks nationally consistent standards governing how student assessments are designed and quality-assured.
Through an examination of assessment practices across New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory, the report identifies several concerning trends:
• Inconsistent academic standards: Each state and territory determines its own assessment requirements and quality assurance processes. Some students complete Year 12 without sitting any formal external examinations, while others undertake externally assessed examinations across all their subjects.
• Questionable national comparability: The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) provides a nationally recognised ranking for university admission, yet it draws upon student results from education systems with substantially different academic expectations.
• Rising grades despite declining performance: In some jurisdictions, the proportion of Year 12 students receiving higher grades has increased substantially, while fewer students receive lower grades. This contrasts with stagnant or declining performance in national and international assessments such as NAPLAN and PISA.
• Declining participation in academic subjects: Enrolments in traditional academic disciplines, including advanced mathematics, the sciences, humanities and foreign languages, have fallen in several jurisdictions, raising concerns about Australia’s future knowledge and skills base.
• Unequal educational opportunities: Differences in the availability of academic subjects and the standards against which students are assessed risk disproportionately affecting disadvantaged students, particularly those in regional and remote communities.
• Inconsistent vocational pathways: Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs contribute differently to Year 12 certification and university admission across jurisdictions, raising further questions about whether students are being assessed fairly.
• Challenges to academic integrity: Growing reliance on student support, adjustments and artificial intelligence raises questions about whether assessment results reliably demonstrate students’ independent knowledge and abilities.
What Does the Evidence Show?
The report identifies substantial differences in student participation and reported achievement across Australia’s senior secondary education systems.
In South Australia, Geography enrolments declined from 1,066 students in 2010 to just 284 in 2025. In the Northern Territory, only 11 students enrolled in Geography and eight in Economics in 2025.
Meanwhile, 58.9% of graded full-year equivalent Year 12 subject results in South Australia in 2025 came from subjects without a formal external written examination.
The report also identifies considerable differences in the assessment of English. In New South Wales, students must study English throughout Years 11 and 12, with external examinations forming a substantial component of assessment. In South Australia and the Northern Territory, students are not required to study English in Year 12, and some English subjects have no formal external written examination.
These differences raise fundamental questions about the comparability of educational achievement across Australia, particularly when students compete for university places through a nationally recognised ranking system.
A Roadmap for Reform
To restore confidence in Australia’s education system and strengthen academic standards, the report makes three principal recommendations.
1. An Independent National Review of Senior Secondary Education
Establish an independent review of Australia’s state and territory Senior Secondary Certificates of Education to determine whether existing assessment arrangements provide sufficiently rigorous and comparable measures of student achievement. The review should also evaluate the ATAR and consider a national framework for reporting student outcomes.
2. Nationally Consistent Assessment Standards
Develop nationally consistent standards governing the design and quality assurance of student assessment throughout the compulsory years of schooling. These standards should strengthen academic integrity and ensure reported results provide a reliable measure of what students have learnt.
3. A National Framework for Student Assessment
Commission an independent feasibility study into three new national assessment protocols:
• Australian Primary School Certificate: Standardised examinations in Year 6 to assess achievement in core curriculum areas and readiness for secondary education.
• Australian Secondary School Certificate: Standardised examinations in Year 10 to measure academic achievement and readiness for senior secondary education or alternative pathways.
• Australian Senior Secondary School Certificate: An optional national examination pathway in Year 12, providing students with an opportunity to demonstrate achievement against nationally consistent academic standards.
These assessments would complement teacher and school reporting, providing a more reliable picture of what Australian students have learnt and achieved.
Restoring Excellence and Equity in Australian Education
Year 12 completion rates tell us how many students finish school, but reveal far less about what those students have learnt. A genuinely better and fairer education system must ensure that students leave school with the knowledge and skills their qualifications are supposed to represent.
Without reliable and comparable assessment standards, Australia’s education systems risk leaving students with qualifications that do not accurately reflect their abilities.
Neither Better Nor Fairer calls for a renewed national commitment to academic integrity and consistent educational standards. Ensuring every Australian student has access to rigorous learning and fair assessment is fundamental to delivering the better and fairer education system our nation has long promised.
This is the second paper in the Page Research Centre’s 2026 Thematic Series: Rethinking and Restating the Nature and Purpose of Australian School Education.
