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In this keynote paper, the author takes as his starting point the proposition that a fundamental purpose of schooling is to provide every student with knowledge and skills to equip them for life beyond school. While acknowledging that schooling has broader purposes, it is argued that there are some fundamental understandings and skills that all students should develop during their school years, and that every student should be expected to demonstrate an acceptable level of these skills and understandings by the time they leave school. As a first step, the knowledge and skills that every student should have as a result of more than a decade's schooling should be identified and clarified and process be developed and put in place for establishing the extent to which individuals are meeting these expectations.