Victoria would conduct its own review if agreement is not reached, he said. The results of the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) paint a picture of a long-term decline in Australian students’ reading, mathematics and science skills. PISA is a test the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development holds every three years. Seventy-nine countries and economic zones took part last year, including Australia. Results were released on Tuesday.

For the first time in the test’s history, Australian students’ performance in maths fell to the OECD average. Fourteen participating nations have overtaken Australia since the test started. Maths literacy is in decline in all states, although Victoria experienced the smallest decline. Reading and science results are also worse. Results have declined in independent, Catholic and government schools. They also declined in all socioeconomic quartiles.

The Council for Educational Research measured a sample of 14,273 15-year-old Australian students in 740 schools as part of the program. This included 2492 Victorian students in 126 schools. More than 600,000 students took part worldwide. Metropolitan students remained ahead of regional and rural students, although all three groups declined. Independent school students were found to be almost one year ahead of students in Catholic schools, and Catholic school students were three-quarters of a year ahead of students in government schools.

Illustration: Matt Golding Credit: But the results also showed that once socioeconomic influences were removed, there was virtually no difference in performance between the three school sectors. Sue Thomson of the Australian Council for Educational Research said it was time for Australia to “press pause, and stop and have a good look at what is going on and why”. This should include a review of the Australian curriculum and an analysis of how effectively it is being taught. “Teachers talk about the crowded curriculum all the time, that we skate across the surface of the curriculum because there is not enough time to do it in depth,” Dr Thomson said.

Loading Australia’s steep decline in mathematical literacy has again exposed many schools’ over-reliance on out-of-field maths teachers. A third of maths teachers in Australia in years 7 to 10 are not qualified to teach maths. “When teaching out-of-field, teachers tend to teach to the middle, to teach the basics,” Dr Thomson said. “They don’t know how to scaffold kids who don’t understand, so the weaker kids lose out, and they don’t know how to extend the kids that are doing well.” This was reflected in the results, which showed a decline among the highest and lowest ranked students.

As well as finding ways to encourage more university graduates to take up maths teaching, Australia should also review teacher training to see if there are gaps in what is being taught, Dr Thomson said. Victoria’s results were better than most other states. The state recorded no significant decline in performance in reading and science and the smallest decline in maths of any state or territory. Today’s Victorian students are about half a year behind where they were in mathematics in 2003. Dr Thomson said other states should look at what Victoria has done in the past 15 years, as well as investigating other countries with superior results.

Mr Merlino said he would also raise at this month’s Education Council meeting the need for more university courses to make maths a prerequisite subject. Mr Tehan said the results showed it was time for Australia to change direction. “We should focus on teaching students literacy and numeracy because they are the essential foundations for a successful education, and should be at the core of the curriculum,” he said. Mr Tehan said money was not the issue. “Estonia was the top-performing country in reading and science and they spend half as much money per student as Australia,” he said.

Shadow education minister Tanya Plibersek said Australian students had recorded their worst results in reading, maths and science since testing began. “Those subjects are the building blocks of a good education,” Ms Plibersek said. “After six years of talk, after six years of failing our schoolkids, the Liberals must say how they’ll fix this serious problem.”