Educators say the decision to hold NAPLAN exams during the holy month of Ramadan will impact Muslim students. Students who fast during Ramadan may have less energy or struggle to concentrate during exams. NAPLAN will likely be held again during Ramadan and the crucial religious holiday of Eid in 2026.
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00:00When people think of Ramadan, they think of people that are fasting from morning to evening
00:07and the fast is there. But the month of Ramadan is much more than fasting, especially with
00:14the longer days at the moment. Our night prayers start quite late and most of our schools provide
00:20the facility for parents and their children to come to these night prayers as well. So
00:25what it does is it makes the night quite short. So waking up early in the morning at dawn for
00:33eating before the fast starts and then finishing late at night as well. So I guess one of the
00:40pressure points is that there's less sleep, which actually impacts the abilities and
00:48activity levels during the day. Yes, that was going to be my next question is around
00:53how much sleep these students are operating on. But as well as that, have you noticed a change
01:00in results or what sort of feedback have you gotten from students and families who are
01:07participating in these NAPLAN exams during Ramadan?
01:11So look, it's not easy to gauge the effect on the results. But let's just say that there's a lot of
01:16yawning that's occurring during the day. And you can see among students and staff members as well
01:22that energy levels are impacted. For that reason, especially the last 10 days of Ramadan, it's a
01:27very intense time. So this year, our school community made a decision to actually give the last
01:33week of Ramadan off, which is next week. And that means we'll have one less week of the term break
01:40and we'll actually have one week off now to give time for families during Ramadan, because it is
01:46a very intense time. In fact, the word Ramadan itself means something hot and intense because
01:51it's an intense time.
01:53So what sort of changes are you calling for here in terms of exams coinciding with Ramadan?
02:02So what we're asking for is that we can provide like a five-year plan in relation to the
02:10educational authorities. And I fully acknowledge the challenges because it's not a short time,
02:16it's one month. And in addition to that, it's based on the lunar calendar, which is always
02:21moving. So I fully acknowledge the logistical challenges that are there. But as we're moving
02:25next year, Ramadan's around the middle of February, and then starts to move to the start of
02:30February. So what will happen is that it will start to come into the holidays. So if we work on
02:35five-year plans, we're hoping that the educational authorities can adjust the map plan so it's
02:39outside of Ramadan. You mentioned there, of course, that your school is closing next week.
02:47When Islamic schools do close, has that ever coincided with NAPLAN,
02:52and how do you sort of get around that?
02:55Well, we wouldn't be able to close while NAPLAN is on because it's an important assessment that
03:01students need to be present for. So we will always take that into account. So this year,
03:05the NAPLAN is just before the last 10 days of Ramadan. So we were able to take one week off
03:11in lieu of reducing our traditional term break by one week.