CANBERRA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) — A third of Australian school students do not meet basic expectations in literacy and numeracy, national standardized tests have shown.

The federal government on Wednesday released results from the 2024 National Assessment Programme for Literacy and Numeracy tests, which showed one in three pupils failed to achieve basic standards in reading and maths.

Nearly 1.3 million students in third, fifth, seventh and ninth grades in more than 9,400 elementary and secondary schools took the annual test and were rated as exceeding expectations, meeting expectations, developing or needing additional support, with the latter two ratings meaning they did not meet basic standards.

Ten percent of students were considered to need additional support to make satisfactory progress, and 23 percent were considered to be developing. Tests revealed significant differences in performance across different student demographic groups.

In all age groups, female students scored higher on literacy tests than boys, while boys scored higher on numeracy tests.

In literacy and numeracy, one third of Indigenous students were identified as needing additional support, compared with 8.6 per cent for non-Indigenous students and 7.7 per cent for non-Indigenous students.

Twenty-four per cent of students from schools very far from the centre of the country either exceeded or met expectations, compared with 70.7 per cent of students from schools in larger cities.

Students whose parents worked in highly skilled jobs consistently outperformed students whose parents worked in unskilled jobs.

Responding to the results, Education Minister Jason Clare said they showed that major reforms were needed to create a better and more equitable school education system.

“Your chances in life shouldn’t depend on how much your parents earn or the color of your skin, but these results show that’s still the case,” he said in a statement.

Clare is currently negotiating with her state and territory counterparts on a new public school funding agreement.

In July, he issued an ultimatum to state and territory education ministers, giving them until September to sign a new agreement that would see A$16 billion ($10.6 billion) in school funding over 10 years, with reforms aimed at improving student outcomes.