More than half of NSW year 9 students would fail at the first hurdle to get their HSC based on this year's NAPLAN results, new statistics from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority have revealed.

It follows the surprise announcement in July by NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli that students would be required to meet a minimum literacy and numeracy standard to receive their HSC.

From next year, year 9 students will need to get a mark of Band 8 or above in their NAPLAN tests to be guaranteed of qualifying for their HSC.

This year's full NAPLAN results confirm that in the 2016 year 9 cohort, more than half of all students in the reading, grammar and punctuation, spelling and numeracy tests received Band 7 or below.