The Federal Education Minister has told state and territory governments to refocus on education basics after Australian students registered record low results in reading, maths and science.

Key points: Australian students are at least a year behind their international counterparts when it comes to maths skills

Australian students are at least a year behind their international counterparts when it comes to maths skills Dan Tehan wants to discuss the slide at a meeting of education ministers next week

Dan Tehan wants to discuss the slide at a meeting of education ministers next week He called on state and territory ministers to back the National School Reform Agreement

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, released on Tuesday, found the maths skills of Australian students have fallen back at least a year compared to their international counterparts.

Education Minister Dan Tehan admitted the outcome from last year's results was disappointing and "should have alarm bells ringing" among state and territory governments.

"Our students should be ranked among the best in the world. We should not accept anything less," he said.

Australia ranked 16th in reading, 29th in maths and 17th in science, while the grouped Chinese provinces of Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang topped each category.

Australian students are now three-and-a-half years behind their Chinese counterparts in maths, three years in science and one-and-a-half in reading.

Mr Tehan said he would discuss what to do at a meeting of education ministers in Alice Springs next week.

He called on state and territory education ministers to back the entire National School Reform Agreement and include phonics as part of teacher training.

"My message to the state and territory education ministers is this: leave the teachers' union talking points at home and be ambitious," he said.

"Our school systems also need to de-clutter their curriculums and get back to basics."

The report shows maths performance is down in all states and territories, with particularly significant declines recorded in SA, NSW, Tasmania, WA and the ACT.

Australia's slide backwards ( Supplied )

It also notes a significant maths performance gender gap in favour of boys has returned, despite being closed in 2015.

Speaking to Seven's Sunrise program, Mr Tehan said he wanted to work with his state and territory counterparts to implement reforms addressing the results.

"My appeal to them is that everyone has to work together to turn this around," he said.

"Alarm bells should be ringing as a result of what we've seen through these results."

PISA is an international measurement of how prepared students nearing the end of compulsory schooling are to meet real-life challenges.

More than 600,000 students in 79 countries and economies took part in last year's PISA, including more than 14,000 Australian students in 740 schools.

Shadow Education Minister Tanya Plibersek said the report card was alarming and accused the Government of failing to address the issue.

"This is a national problem, it needs a national approach and we need to make sure that we're working together to teach the basics well, lift entry standards into teaching, give schools the support they need," she said.

Ms Plibersek said there needed to be more attention on attracting and keeping bright teachers in the classroom.

"Funding is only one of the elements here. We need to make sure that like other high-performing countries we're attracting our best and brightest into teaching degrees at university," she said.

"High-performing countries generally take their teachers from the top 30 per cent of academic achievers.

"If our kids can't read, write and do maths and science, then we've failed," she added.

"Those subjects are the building blocks of a good education."

AAP/ABC