The New South Wales (NSW) education curriculum for Years 3 to 10 will be undergoing major changes as policymakers attempt to address the issue of deteriorating performance. The draft curriculum, which was published on Friday for consultation, proposes the shift back towards rote learning in maths and places greater emphasis on writing skills. This builds on the draft curriculum for K to 2, released in late-2021, that made the learning of phonics compulsory again. The proposed curriculum will also make the teaching of writing the responsibility of English teachers. At present, all teachers are expected to teach students how to write in the required style of their subjects. For example, science teachers teach students how to write science reports with minimal emotive and descriptive language. However, as a result, Australian writing standards across the board have dramatically declined during the recent decades, with one-in-five Year 9 students failing to meet …