Australia is falling behind China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, its high school students in particular, in terms of academic performance.

The existing advantage of these Asian students over their Australian counterparts has reached an average gap of more than two years, according to the new Grattan Institute report titled 'Catching up: Learning from the best school systems in East Asia'.

In almost all respect of academic disciplines, Australian students were bested by high school students from Shanghai, according to Grattan Institute director for school education program Dr Ben Jensen.

Australians now lag by more than two years in Math and by 15 months in Science when pitted with Shanghai high school students, who are normally within the age bracket of 15-year-old.

Jensen added that the academic prowess of these Asian students was not limited on the technical literacy as their language and reading performances showed that they enjoy a 13-month edge over Australians.

"It is across the spectrum that students in Australia are falling behind," Jensen told ABC.

And the widening gap is blamed by Jensen on the country's education program, which ironically has attracted relative spending surges in past years but woefully geared at wrong priorities.

"We are spending a lot of money ... but we are spending in the wrong places. We should be spending it on how to better improve our students' learning," the Grattan director said.

It appears that Australia completely overlooked the importance of enhancing the capability of teachers to impart quality education to their students, which Jensen said can only be achieved by continuous development.

"Other Asian countries are constantly working out ways of how kids can be better taught, we don't ... and the main difference is (teachers overseas) are trained as researchers and they are continually trying new things with children learning and if it has been successful they keep it, Jensen pointed out on the new report.

"So we're trying to improve teaching, to improve learning, and we know what works in schools, but they're doing it in spades while unfortunately we are talking about it but are not able to translate that into action in schools," Jensen added during an interview with ABC.

He noted too that educators in Asian countries were being held in higher esteem, which "is an importance difference, and it is the crucial difference between effective teaching and learning in Australia and these systems."

Jensen explained that the East Asian system seriously considers the teaching job as a true and noble profession, in which "the complexities of diagnosing each student's learning and shaping teaching to ensure that each student's learning continually improves is recognised."