NAPLAN assessments may still be a truly national benchmark, with an eleventh-hour pay deal offered to teachers who were refusing to administer the exams.
The Tasmanian government announced on Saturday it had made a new pay proposal to the Australian Education Union to put an end to strike action launched during the week.
Members of the union had stated they would not administer the national literacy and numeracy test, taken by children in years 3, 5, 7 and 9, unless a better deal was offered.
Teachers and support staff wanted a match for the agreement accepted by the state's police officers in December, which Premier Jeremy Rockliff says has been fulfilled under the new offer.
"We believe this should put an end to the work bans to allow our teachers to continue their enormously valued work in our schools," he said.
The proposal includes a three per cent pay rise in years one and two and a rise of 2.75 per cent in year three along with "a range of incentives and conditions", the premier said.
Before the proposal, striking teachers had pledged to not support any NAPLAN activities, including practice tests, for 2026 and 2027.
The window for the national test, which provides a snapshot of performance against Australian standards, is March 11-23.
The union has been at loggerheads with Tasmania's Liberal government over pay and negotiations, along with looming public sector job cuts aimed at curbing state debt.
The government has said it wants to cut 2500 public sector positions in a bid to reign in ballooning net debt Treasury says could reach $146 billion by 2040 without corrective action.
"Our members are quite angry," said David Genford, the union's Tasmanian president.
The union said it wanted to land a "devastating blow" on the government, with escalated action such as school closures on the cards by the end of March.
It is not yet known whether the proposed deal will be enough to call off the threat but Mr Genford said on Wednesday the NAPLAN stop-work action could be avoided if an improved offer was forthcoming.
The proposal was on the table until March 20, Mr Rockliff said.
