More than 6000 Ballarat students in years three, five, seven and nine joined more than a million of their peers across the country in completing the annual national standardised testing.

Students were assessed yesterday on language conventions and writing, with reading and numeracy being tested today and tomorrow.

Delacombe Primary School had 111 year three and five students sit the tests.

“We try to stress to our kids this is just something we have to do, it doesn’t tell us any extra than we already know,” said teaching and learning coach Stephanie Lee.

”Teachers already know where the children are up to. We do lots of assessments and each student has individual learning goals, so we try to approach it as not anything different from what they normally do.”

Ms Lee said students had prepared with practice tests so they were familiar with the NAPLAN testing conditions, and did one “stamina piece” of writing each fortnight so they were used to producing the style of work the NAPLAN requires.

NAPLAN has come under criticism for putting unnecessary stress on children, parents and teachers as well as diverting money that could be better spent in the education system.

Parents Victoria executive officer Gail McHardy said the NAPLAN was merely a snapshot in time and teachers regularly assessed their students’ progress.

“It’s just another test. The test can be useful but we shouldn’t be stressing kids over it. The reality is we’ve got to look at the bigger context.”

She was also critical of the millions of dollars that NAPLAN costs, with the federal government’s failure to implement the promised online testing program consuming even more funding than previous years.

“That money could be directly invested in to the school system. These things cost a lot of money to orchestrate, to deliver and to implement,” she said.

“A lot more people are questioning the value of NAPLAN and expense and certainly we would be looking to see results reflected in better funding to schools that need it.”

Millions had been invested in plans to conduct NAPLAN online in Victoria and some other states this year, but the states withdrew due to technological issues and the availability of enough devices for all students to work on.  

“Moving NAPLAN online by 2019 … will result in better assessment, more precise results and faster turnaround of information,” said  Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority chief executive Robert Randell.