A news stories comments that "Australian students have recorded their worst-ever results in national tests that measure digital literacy, with just 37 per cent of year 10 students [about 15 years old] and 50 per cent of year 6 students [about 11 years old] assessed as proficient."
They are commenting on the recently released results from the large scale test on ICT literacy carried out by Australia's National Assessment Program (NAP) in 2025. The news release from NAP mentions that the year 10 result is "the lowest percentage observed since the assessment's inception [in 2005]." This despite the fact that participants report using digital tools of various kinds at home and at school.
Although the full report from NAP has the most detail, I've included the news report as it has comments from various experts, providing different views - from "Blaise Joseph, a former teacher and current director of education at the Centre for Independent Studies" saying that AI was making digital literacy skills redundant (so perhaps the low score was no big deal) to "Therese Keane, a professor of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education at La Trobe University" seeing AI making digital literacy more, not less, important.
News report: Duffy, C. & McAloon, C. (2026, May 26). School students have grown up online but test shows digital literacy at new low
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-27/school-students-digital-literacy-at-new-low-test-shows/106724164
Full report on the NAP site: https://www.nap.edu.au/nap-sample-assessments/results-and-reports (elsewhere on the site you can find the survey instrument etc. and there is an interactive statistics dashboard)
Photo by Sheila Webber: bearded iris, May 2026
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