The New South Wales government will implement findings from businessman David Gonski’s latest school education report in the first review of the state’s school curriculum in 29 years.

The NSW education minister, Rob Stokes, said the entire curriculum from kindergarten to year 12 would be reviewed and would put Gonski’s report into practice.

“Several recent national reports on improving educational outcomes call for curriculum review and we are keen to ensure that these reports are answered by real action,” Stokes said on Sunday. “This is a once in a generation chance to examine, declutter and improve the NSW curriculum to make it simpler to understand and to teach.”

The April report, commissioned by the federal government and prepared by a panel headed by Gonski, said student outcomes must go beyond meeting age or year-based expectations, focusing instead on progressive hurdles in each subject.

It found Australia’s school curriculum failed a generation of children and must focus on stretching individual students to improve every year and called for a greater focus on literacy and numeracy in early education and an urgent inquiry into the teaching and assessment of year 11 and 12 students.

Stokes said NSW’s curriculum review would examine the role of new technologies and teaching methods and would draw on the expertise of teachers to ensure they were supported by the new curriculum. Australian literature, scientific discoveries and key historical events will also play a part.

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said the world had changed “rapidly” since the last comprehensive review in 1989 with these reforms providing greater focus on the basics including English, maths and science.

“We want to ensure our students have every opportunity with the skills needed for the jobs of the future,” Berejiklian said.

The NSW opposition’s spokesman, Jihad Dib, said the state was falling behind the Australian average in scientific and reading literacy in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment.

“The Berejiklian government has had opportunities many times over the last eight years to do something meaningful for schools – and did nothing more than patchwork tinkering with the syllabus,” he said. “It has been starving schools of the support they require, at every level.”

The review will be led by Australian Council for Educational Research chief executive professor Geoff Masters, who said it would need to focus on implementation issues and look for ways to be decluttered and simplified.