A very interesting article Phil. I was educated in Queensland primary (1950-59) and secondary schools (1960-63). Primary school teaching was very formalized with only three subjects taught: English, Mathematics and Social Studies. However music, art,crafts, dancing, physical education and sport were all a part of the school program. But with the exception of Manual Arts (in Grade 7 and 8) these were not examinable.
Apart from the external exam, the "Scholarship", in grade 8, students were subject to three in-school end-of-term exams. The results were recorded on the Report card, which you took home for your parents to read (and sign).
The Inspector paid an annual visit but all he did was ask a few general questions to the class.
At the end of our primary years we thus had a very solid grounding in a rather narrow range of subjects.
You state: "It didn’t last ... down-under, things went well for a while until moral-campaigners, management theorists and change-for-change-sake artists left the schooling doors open. They altered the structures of education departments and schooling went “back to drastics”.
Phil over what period are you referring to and what do you mean by "things went well for a while'? Inspectors have been gone for years, primary school children nowadays enter High School with a shallow grounding in English and Mathematics although they have been taught a much greater range of subjects than in the 50s. Just what "drastics" are you talking about?

WTF?

In the time I spent teaching in QLD secondary schools I say many attempts to free students from the drudgery of everyday school life.

Unfortunately, it was those charged with implementing these changes that fought hardest to ensure they would not be successful.

Happy to except pay rises, improved working conditions and regular breaks from class for in-service those fraudsters called Head of Department thwarted attempts to change the status-quo.

They selected the brightest and most motivated of students and trained them to “do” exams.
This suited them, the principals, parents and that small group of students until they finished school and had a university placement.

Those teachers capable of change implementation left disillusioned often to the glee and smirking and snide comments of the HODs and their toadies.

Often in the press I will read articles and letters from now retired HODs expressing dismay at the current educational system. It was the egotistical and amoral decisions that they made all those years ago that have shaped the current educational landscape

A most timely article. I work at a Technical College which, despite its track record of success in just three years in an area with a entrenched problem of low-retention rates for senior secondary students, is now being conspired against by both state and federal Labor governments and forced to close.

Those teachers capable of change implementation left disillusioned often to the glee and smirking and snide comments of the HODs and their toadies.
WTF ?,
you sound rather sound so don't belittle yourself by calling yourself a teacher. You're either male or female but definitely not teacher.
I can identify with with your sentiments re the heads of Department of Education. Every govt. department is contaminated with such vermin kept at great cost.

You only have to mention QLD,
This state is that far behind any other au state or territory.
I believe it all stems from the Joe years.
I am not surprised that you have problems in any area.
In a recent trip through QLD it is quite apparent that road safety comes a distant last in priority, let alone schooling.
Unless u get your act in to priority you won't have any kids to school.
I say this state is to vast to be administered by the same legislature.

Interesting article. NSW schools seem to have the same problems. New teachers are soon overwhelmed by the existing culture where testing the studnets memory passes for assessment of knowledge and understanding. Anyone who resists will eventually either surrender or leave. It is not just the administrators that are the problem the culture of testing has become ingrained in teachers as well