HSC courses could be sold to countries with the best performing education systems, with Asian countries keen to teach the NSW syllabuses in their schools, according to the board responsible for exams and curriculum.
The chair of the NSW Education Standards Authority, Tom Alegounarias, said the HSC was in demand around the world.
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"The HSC is one of the state's greatest assets," Mr Alegounarias said. "We have had Chinese schools and systems wanting to buy our syllabuses."
The standards authority, formerly the Board of Studies, released new syllabuses for English, Maths, Science and History on Tuesday after a four-year consultation period with teachers, interest groups and academics.
![A new topic, the craft of writing, will be mandatory for all English students.](/web/20170227093819im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/8/g/x/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.guhhsu.png/1487653240841.jpg)
For the first time, the full syllabuses will be available digitally. Mr Alegounarias said this was not only to help NSW teachers access the material but also made it possible for the HSC courses to be sold.
The HSC is already offered in several international schools in Asia, including Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, but there is also interest from Asian schools to teach the syllabuses.
Students in Asian education systems, especially those in Hong Kong, Singapore and parts of mainland China, regularly outperform their Australian peers in the OECD's global Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).
Australian students were the equivalent of 1½ years behind top-performer Singapore's students in science in the most recent PISA results released late last year. Australian students were a year behind in reading and more than two years behind in maths.
Mr Alegounarias said the new syllabuses would be "unashamedly focused on mastery" and there would "less breadth and more depth" to better meet what students will need to learn for the future.
"Curriculum is our community's expression of what we want for the future," Mr Alegounarias said.
In English, all students will have to hone their writing skills and improve their grammar, spelling and punctuation while in the advanced courses, a Shakespeare text will remain compulsory.
There will be more statistical analysis in the standard maths course, and students will study the algorithms behind Google searches as well as focusing on key financial concepts such as compounding interest.
The advanced maths syllabuses are still being reviewed after criticism from leading mathematicians.
The new science syllabus will see a stronger focus on maths in Physics and Chemistry and, in History, students will look at how the modern world was shaped, with topics including the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and capitalism.
Students starting year 11 next year will be the first to study the new syllabuses.