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National schools ranking - Exams for Year 12

STATES will have their Year 12 English, maths, physics and chemistry courses ranked in order of excellence in an attempt to stop "dumbed down" curriculums short-changing Australian students.

Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson has confirmed plans to introduce a national report card for key subjects after being warned students in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia were being left behind in maths.

The benchmarks means parents will be able to compare results from state to state.

"I am concerned that standards are being dumbed down," Dr Nelson said.

"These rankings, if you like, will not be done by me. I expect the experts in mathematics and physics to tell me, and tell Australia, what is the highest standard in Australia down to the lowest."

His, push for new curriculum benchmarks is likely to underpin proposals for a new Year 12 exam, to be known as the Australian Certificate of Education.

Dr Nelson acted after being alerted to a "no losers" policy in some states that was masking students' learning difficulties.

He said he remained deeply concerned by warnings that up to one in three students was leaving the education system "essentially malfunctioning" in literacy.

Students were also increasingly studying films and television shows as "texts", rather than books.

"Alit students need to be taught contemporary literacy, film and television, but we are in an environment where increasingly the kids are studying Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Big Brother instead of Jane Austen and Bronte," he said.

The reform push represents the next phase of the Federal Government's attempts to force the states to publish more information on students' results and teacher training.

But the changes do not require co-operation from the states, with Dr Nelson warning he will send in flying squads of experts in core subject areas to rank the states.

Dr Nelson has engaged the Australian Council for Educational Research to develop an Australian Certificate of Education that will establish a "nationally consistent high standard assessment of student skills and knowledge".

"It is clear that standards vary from state to state. It is also clear that curriculum has been altered, in some cases to the detriment of content and standards," Dr Nelson said.