This report highlights a central paradox in the Australian education system: results are going backwards despite two decades of increased government funding. The report asks whether the curriculum itself has become part of the problem. It calls for urgent reform of the Australian Curriculum, centred on two options.

There is little as controversial in education as determining what it is that young people should be able to know, understand and be able to do following their time at school. As Chapter Three explains, Australia has wrestled for over 30 years with the issue of what every student should study at school as defined...

This report is based on a comparative analysis of primary school curricula in the areas of mathematics, science and English (the intended curriculum) across all Australian education systems as well as a selected number of overseas countries to identify the characteristics of those education systems that perform best in international tests such as the TIMSS...