ACT Year 6 students lead the country in science literacy, recent results show.

 The 2012 National Assessment Program – Science Literacy shows the ACT has maintained its number one ranking in 2012 in science.

ACT Education Minister Joy Burch says in 2012, the mean score for the ACT, at 429, was significantly higher than that for all other states and territories and greater than the second highest jurisdiction, Western Australia, at 406.

“The ACT also had the highest proportion of students attaining the Proficient Standard at 65.3 percent, compared with the national result of 51.4 percent,” Ms Burch says.

Other findings included ACT Year 6 male students ranking the highest performing group overall in 2012, closely followed by ACT Year 6 females; the ACT recording an improvement in mean scores between 2006 (418) and 2012 (429); and ACT students recording a higher participation rate (95.2 per cent) than all other jurisdictions (90.2 per cent national average) in 2012.