Schools in NSW are facing some exciting but complicated challenges in the next few years and the Herald today launches a dedicated page to try to help our readers understand the debate.

A new weekly education section will invite educators, parents, students and anyone else with a smart point of view to talk about what is needed to improve school results and help children become happy, positive citizens.

There is certainly a sense of anxiety about where the education sector is headed and whether our schools are delivering the skills to help Australia compete economically. According to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) standardised tests carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an average 15-year-old Australian student is now seven months behind where they were in 2006 in science and a year behind where they were in maths in 2003, while their reading ability has declined by a year since 2000.

While some want to focus on these narrow academic outcomes, schools are simultaneously being dragged into an unprecedented culture war over what values children should be taught. Prime Minister Scott Morrison entered the fray last week by warning about "gender whisperers" in schools.

In NSW some of these issues will come into sharp focus in coming months as the state Education Standards Authority undertakes a historic review of the whole curriculum to adapt it to the 21st century. It will have to implement the national curriculum but add NSW characteristics. The process is sure to involve discussion of the big philosophical choices in schooling. Some focus on adaptive lifetime learning, others stress specific academic disciplines. Some want to strip back the curriculum, which they say is overloaded and unteachable, others want to load in more life skills and citizenship education. The role of the HSC as the final day of judgment is sure to be reassessed.