Year 5 students showed an improvement in reading skills, but not in numeracy.

The latest NAPLAN test results show an improvement in the reading performance of Year 5 students around the country.

NAPLAN results from more than 9,000 schools across the country have been released.

The tests, which examine numeracy, reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, were sat in May by 1 million students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

For example, for Year 5 students in Victoria, the number of students recording an acceptable performance in reading rose from 94.1 per cent in 2012 to 96.5 per cent in 2013.

In Queensland, the performance rate rose from 89.1 per cent in 2012 to 96.2 per cent in 2013.

The Australian Curriculum, Reporting and Assessment Authority (ACARA) says while there have been gains in reading in Year 5, there have not been similar improvements in numeracy.

ACARA chief executive Robert Randall says NAPLAN is not a high-stakes, pass or fail test, but the results provide important information about how the country is going.

"I want to acknowledge some people have concern around NAPLAN the conduct of it, concerns about how it impacts on young people," he said.

"I would never want to diminish those.

"But I am quite confident the benefits of those outweigh some of those concerns in important areas like literacy and numeracy which everyone agrees are fundamentally important.

"We can see how well we are doing and where we can do better."

Reading skills of Indigenous students in the NT improve

The Northern Territory has been a stand-out when it comes to the reading improvement of Indigenous students from Year 3 in 2011 to Year 5 in 2013.

Reading results for Year 5 Indigenous students have increased 20 percentage points since 2008.

The biggest gains have been in the last year when the percentage of Indigenous students at or above the minimum standard rose from 64.7 per cent in 2012 to 83.3 per cent in 2013.

In comparison, the reading levels of non-Indigenous students rose from 93.1 per cent in 2012 to 96.9 in 2013.

Mr Randall has praised the Territory's achievements.

"I think that is an investment the Territory has made in that area," he said.

"They have made investment across the Territory in schools to drive that improvement and I think they should see some positive feedback coming out of these results."

NAPLAN report key findings The National Report shows that, overall, student achievement has remained stable across 2012- 2013

There has been a moderate increase in performance in Year 5 reading compared to the first year of NAPLAN data in 2008

For the 2011 to 2013 cohort, the reading gain from Year 3 to Year 5 for Indigenous students was greater than the gains for non-Indigenous students nationally but more year-on-year data is needed to determine if this is statistically significant

Encouraging signs of sustained improvement in Year 5 reading with a state and a territory recording average achievement above their results for 2012

There has been an overall improvement in Year 3 reading from 2008–2013

NT Education Minister Peter Chandler says the results vindicate the Territory's change of direction on schools funding and an increased investment in the early years.

"These results will allow us to see where the results are improving so they are the areas we should be strengthening and of course taking away resources from areas that have just been a dismal failure, " he said.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda says the results suggest that the 2008 Closing the Gap strategy for Indigenous disadvantage is starting to work.

"I've argued for some time that we need to let that big injection of funds take effect," he said.

"I think this might be the beginning of it that [and] we're just seeing a dramatic improvement in some of these outcomes.

"I am telling our people we have got to be patient because these are the time lags we experience in trying to change things that have been generations in the making."

The NT Government has commissioned a number of reviews into education, with the first report into Indigenous education due later this month.

The NT still has the lowest overall student performance in every subject area and year level.

Tasmanian students are also struggling compared to the rest of the nation, but Year 3 students are now on par with New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia in numeracy.

In Queensland, the reading achievement of students has been increasing since 2008 when prep school was first introduced in that state.

P&C Queensland CEO Kevin Goodworth says it was a "wise move for Queensland to move into a preparatory year."

Queensland Teachers' Union president Kevin Bates agrees.

"Those results do reflect better outcomes for students who have had an extra 12 months of schooling. I think most people would acknowledge that that is a fairly logical outcome, " he said.