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National Curriculum Inching Forward

Whether in the business center of Sydney and its suburbs to the east, in the mining and agricultural communities of the remote Kimberley region in the northwest, or elsewhere, most of Australia’s 3.3 million K-12 students share the customary features of schooling—from physical structures to academic schedules.

The content also has a common structure across the country, but there are often vast differences in what and how well students learn, depending on where they live.

Now, as parents and policymakers Down Under recognize that young Aussies will need to be competitive not only with their counterparts in the commonwealth’s six states and two territories, but also with students around the globe, officials have undertaken an ambitious plan to standardize the system to improve equity and raise the country’s standing...