The Federal Education Minister has repeated his support for the NAPLAN scheme.

The 2014 National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) National Report released this week is the first to plot the achievements of an entire cohort of students as they progressed from Year 3 to Year 9.

“Parents and teachers know that NAPLAN is an important national resource where we are able to see at the individual, school, state and national level how our kids are performing,” Education Minister Christopher Pyne said in a departmental statement.

“Every parent should have access to how their student is doing against national standards and in comparison with his or her peers as well as teachers, schools and education authorities.

“Without NAPLAN there would be no way of knowing if Australian students don’t have the foundations right in the key areas of literacy and numeracy.

The Government says it is improving NAPLAN through the development of an online test.

It expects that this will get results into the hands of parents and teachers much faster, so they can work with students to achieve their best.

“The Australian Government will continue to work with the states and territories to ensure the NAPLAN tests remain relevant and useful for students, schools and parents, and NAPLAN online is a major part of this,” Mr Pyne said.

The full 2014 NAPLAN National Report can be found here.