Mr Clare will announce plans to merge four agencies that have overlapping duties and replace them with the Teaching and Learning Commission, as he warns that public school dropout rates are far too high.

“In independent and Catholic schools, completion rates are high and are either stable or going up,’’ Mr Clare will tell a national schools symposium at Curtin University on Tuesday.

“It’s in our public schools where the real challenge is, and where a lot of the heavy lifting happens. In the last decade, the percentage of young people finishing high school has dropped in public schools from about 83 per cent to as low as 73 per cent.’’

Mr Clare will say that the Albanese government’s funding deal to pour an extra $16bn into public schools over the next decade, in return for better results, will “turn this around’’.

To pocket the funding, state and territory governments must increase the proportion of school leavers with Year 12, or equivalent, certification by 7.5 per cent within five years, compared with 2022 results.

Mr Clare has set a five-year target for a 10 per cent reduction in the proportion of students needing additional support in reading, writing and mathematics, in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy tests. And he is demanding a 10 per cent jump in the proportion of top NAPLAN performers.

“(Public) schools play an outsized role in educating some of the most disadvantaged children in this country, (who) we know are more likely to start behind or fall behind, through no fault of their own,’’ Mr Clare will tell the symposium.

“This funding is tied to reforms … like evidence-based teaching, like phonics checks and numeracy checks in Year 1 to identify kids who need additional help, and then making sure they get the help they need through more individualised support, things like small-group tutoring.’’

State and territory ministers will be asked to endorse his plans for a Teaching and Learning Commission in time for the next review of the national curriculum due next year.

The commission would focus on “evidence-based teaching methods’’, including explicit instruction and the use of phonics to teach reading and writing. It would also analyse workforce data and advise on ways to attract and retain teachers, while supporting career pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers. Importantly, it would drive the reform of teacher training, once universities reached their end-of-year deadline to change university degrees to focus on practical teaching methods and classroom management.

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, which prepares the national curriculum and administers NAPLAN tests, would combine with three other agencies.

The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, which sets accreditation standards for teacher training in universities, will be merged with the rival Australian Education Research Organisation, which is distributing evidence-based teaching resources to teachers and schools.

Education Services Australia, which collects data on students with disability, will also come under the new umbrella.

The new super-agency will take over AITSL’s role of assessing the skills of overseas teachers wanting to work in Australia, and setting professional standards for teachers.

The creation of high-quality classroom materials and guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence in schools, as well as educational technology, will fall under the commission’s remit.

The proposed merger is likely to elevate AERO chief executive Jenny Donovan, who started her career as a high school teacher in western Sydney and has impressed Coalition and Labor politicians with her expert data-driven research and swift distribution of user-friendly advice for teachers.

The biggest loser is likely to be Stephen Gniel, chief executive of the biggest agency, ACARA, which is under pressure to simplify a national curriculum that primary school principals have complained is “impossible to teach’’. The curriculum is due for review next year.

Mr Clare has written to all four chief executives outlining his plan to create the TLC “under one roof, to maintain and protect the critical work that these organisations do now, and improve co-ordination’’. He will tell the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success national symposium on Tuesday that the new body will help implement reforms to the quality of teaching.

“(It will) oversee and drive the reforms we are making to initial teacher education to help build the workforce we need, and help raise esteem for what I think is the most important job in the world,’’ he will say.

Mr Clare’s announcement comes after the architect of the needs-based funding model for schools, business leader David Gonski, warned it would take years for the extra money to make a difference. He said he had recommended the extra funding 14 years ago, and it was a “great credit’’ to the Albanese government that it had finally found the cash. “Now the clock is going to tick,’’ he said. “It’s going to take a few years to get there.

I don’t think it’s for me to be frustrated, it’s not for me to judge.’’

Mr Gonski said he thought his report, calling for public funding to be channelled to the most ­disadvantaged students, was “still right’’.

“The only thing I bridle with is when people tell me that didn’t work – because it wasn’t implemented,’’ he said.

“But now the money is there and the important question is how the money is spent.

“Education can change lives and change countries.

“If you want to talk about productivity, the best thing is to get kids to where they are capable of going.’’