NAPLAN testing won't be going away any time soon, Education Minister Simon Birmingham says.
Facing demands from states and teachers to urgently scrap the standardised tests in primary and secondary schools, he is instead holding out for a review later this year.
Senator Birmingham met with his state and territory counterparts in Adelaide on Friday to go over recommendations in the latest report by David Gonski to overhaul the schools curriculum.
NSW minister Rob Stokes used the meeting to call for the urgent scrapping of NAPLAN, arguing it's being used as a vehicle for schools to extort money from students and families.
There's also suggestions teachers are focusing too much on preparing students for the tests in years three, five, seven and nine and not enough on overall learning.
Backed by teachers and the state's Labor opposition, Mr Stokes urged that NAPLAN be replaced by a less "high stakes" test that assessed each student's progress, as recommended by Mr Gonski.
Chief Scientist Alan Finkel also suggested in a report last week that more comprehensive testing is needed.
But Senator Birmingham said the latest Gonski report was based heavily on research and analysis informed by NAPLAN testing.
"NAPLAN will not be going away any time soon because it is an important deliverable in terms of giving Australian parents information about how their child is tracking," he said.
The ACT government is working on terms of reference for a review of NAPLAN to be presented to the Education Council at their meeting in June.
"Of course we'll be open to any improvements to NAPLAN, and ultimately if the recommendations in the Gonski report lead to something even better in terms of assessment and progress and transparency to parents, we'll work through that at that stage as well," Senator Birmingham said.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is also taking a cautious approach to reviewing NAPLAN, suggesting while as a parent he can see negatives that need to be addressed there's no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
"I'd like to see on a bipartisan basis people work toward seeing how we can improve it, deal with the concerns expressed by frontline teachers and parents but not automatically junk the whole policy overnight," he said.
In the meantime state and territory ministers have agreed to work through 23 recommendations made by Mr Gonski in the report, released on Monday.
His second report into Australian schools highlighted a decade of declining education outcomes to argue the nation's aspiration for excellence was in jeopardy.
Senator Birmingham said there was a "shared sense of ambition" and ministers would follow up with officials within months on progress made on how the recommendations can form part of a new schools reform agreement.
