Some 70,000 NSW high school students will soon have to meet higher maths and English standards to receive their HSC but there are concerns it may lead to more student stress.
From 2020 onwards, students across the state need to reach Year 9 levels of literacy and numeracy to be eligible for the graduating certificate.
Next year's Year 9 cohort will be the first group who must reach the new standards, monitored through NAPLAN, under the reform announced by the NSW government on Tuesday.
"To get a HSC you've got to do more than turn up and write your name down on an exam paper," Education Minister Adrian Piccoli told reporters in Sydney.
"I make no apology that we're setting a standard."
Around 70,000 students across the state sat the end-of-year HSC exam last year.
It is understood roughly 3500 of those wouldn't have met the new standards.
Opposition education spokesman Jihad Dib, former principal at Punchbowl Boys High School in Sydney's west, is worried families and over-worked teachers will be left to bring under-performing students up to speed.
"What I worry about is in three years' time the HSC won't be standing for Higher School Certificate, but rather it will be standing for Higher Stress Certificate," he said.
"There's already an enormous amount of stress on students, on parents and on teachers and schools.
"It's no use just simply saying, 'you need to improve, and do it all on your own'. The responsibility of government is to ensure that they provide the funding and the resources to make that happen."
Jack Yu, currently in his final year of study at Cherrybrook Technology High School, says he could see how it could lead to more anxiety.
"At a younger age you only have parents' expectations, if you have to meet another standard, it might add more stress," he said.
The NSW Teachers Federation and Association of Independent Schools of NSW have backed the move towards higher standards.
But Teachers Federation acting president Gary Zadkovich has called on the federal government to fully implement NSW Gonski funding to ensure teachers are adequately supported.
Darren Cocks, from the NSW Business Chamber, says businesses have been "crying out" for apprentices to start work with better maths and English skills.
He says students are beginning trades without basic maths knowledge, with some not knowing the running order of the calendar.
Nine in 10 students take maths as a subject in Year 12, while English is compulsory.
Mr Piccoli said those struggling to meet the new standards would be given extra classes.
Students will get several chances from Year 9 to Year 12 to meet the new standard - a minimum band eight out of 10 when they sit NAPLAN tests.
