"That decline is almost unmatched in the rest of the world,it's very hard to find places that have seen such a steady decline over such a long period,"Professor Masters told The Sydney Morning Herald Schools Summit on Thursday.
"I believe that the reform of the curriculum is one of the factors that can arrest the decline and turn it around."
Australian students'performance in the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment last year fell below the international average for maths for the first time since the tests began and scores in all domains have declined significantly in both real and relative terms.
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Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the results challenge"all of us to rethink our approach to education so our students can reach their full potential and also so our economic future can be assured".
Draft recommendations fromthe review,which Professor Masters handed down late last year,called for cuts to the number of HSC subjects,a shift to micro-credentials to reduce the emphasis on end-of-year exams and merging vocational and academic subjects.
Ms Berejiklian said the draft recommendation that syllabus content be reduced by about 30 per cent needed to be a"benchmark for change"to the education system.