A sweeping review of the NSW curriculum has called for major changes to the HSC, including slashing the number of courses, reducing the emphasis on end-of-school exams and merging vocational and academic subjects.

The biggest rethink of the curriculum in 30 years also suggests paring back primary school content to focus on literacy, numeracy and emotional development, more minimum standards, and a restructure of the syllabus around attainment levels rather than year levels.

The NSW Government commissioned Education Professor Geoff Masters to lead the review in May last year in response to concerns that the state's curriculum was too crowded, and needed to be updated for the 21st century.

The NSW curriculum review is the biggest since 1989. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

Some of the biggest changes he suggested in the draft report, made public on Tuesday, were to the Higher School Certificate, which has become the major credential since the school leaving age was raised to 17, but which still separated academic and vocational subjects in a way many thought was "artificial and unhelpful".