Almost 10,000 primary school students in Sydney's Catholic school system will sit the annual basic skills test for the last time today.
They join about 125,000 Year 3 and Year 5 students from around the State in testing their literacy and numeracy using the NSW Government's three-hour test a final  time following an announcement this week from NSW Minister for Education and Training John Della Bosca that students across NSW will be nationally tested from next year.
The decision follows "a landmark agreement between States and Territories" as Australian Education Ministers finalised arrangements for the commencement of National Testing from May 2008.
The testing overhaul will put an end to the NSW basic skills test for years 3 and 5 and instead will test literacy and numeracy of years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students from every state and territory over three days and using the same tests.
These changes will also end the current state-wide ELLA and SNAP tests that students in years 7 and 8 are required to sit.
The Federal Government has made this national testing a condition of funding for the states to comply.
Tim McMullen, Head of Secondary Curriculum at the Sydney Catholic Education Office welcomed this week's announcement saying that national testing will provide a clearer record of each student's progress in the foundational areas of literacy and numeracy over Years 3 to 9.
Over the last ten years, there has been a steady increase in overall improved literacy and numeracy results in Sydney's Catholic Primary schools since they first took part in the BST in 1998.
The biggest achievement has been the increase in number of students in Year 3 with improved literacy marks from 74% in 1998 to 92% in 2006.
Br Kelvin Canavan, Executive Director of Schools, says that these results are remarkable given that 60% of students in Sydney's 114 parish primary schools are from a Language Background other than English (LBOTE).
Last year, Sydney Catholic Primary schools achieved record results in the Basic Skills Test.
About 98% of Year 3 students performed at or above the National Literacy benchmark, while 37% of students in Year 5 scored in the top Literacy band compared to 33% in 2005.
In numeracy, 40% of all Year 5 students were in the top band.