Otokonoko,

I appreciate your point of view.

However, it seems to me that a abroad and unwieldy entity such as mass education, formed on a factory model of processing, employs standardised testing as a form of quality control.

I understand that this model is useful for products, but I'm skeptical of its efficacy in promoting higher thinking and instilling meaning in the lives of humans.

I suppose a conveyor belt with mass-produced intellects stuffed with standardised, one-size-fits-all information and applicability is the place we're at.

It will be interesting to see where it takes us.

It is amusing that Naplan is so much a problem, it will be to the corrupted education insiders. Many teachers if they did not teach to Naplan would not teach anything; there are so many bad teachers out there.
This is based on 24 years of experience, my and my daughter`s education, I remember teachers who were mad, in the literal sense, moving to another school, not sacked and we had to move our daughter from a State "Centre of Excellence" from teacher brutality and incompetence.
Get rid of Naplan and watch the State system wither even more.

Poirot, surely the main reason for schools & education is to enable the student to operate in our society. This requires some level of practical learning.

First being able to read helps one get about, & get a job.

Second being able to work out the change from your bus ticket helps you control your wealth.

Before we can be capable of higher thinking, first we must be able to understand the basics of life. The only difference those head in the cloud teachers, dreaming of "making a difference" in kids lives, are likely to make is to make them unemployable, & unable to support themselves.

When it comes to meaning in kids lives, I'll thank teachers to mind their own business. You don't have to spend much time observing teachers to see that far too many have little grip on reality, & the last things kids need is their meaning guided by such people.

Teachers, most of whom have never left school, are the worst possible to start giving guidance to kids who will have to live in the real world.

If we could just manage to find teachers who could actually teach the 3Rs & do it well, our kids would be much better off. Leaving school with heads full of the ideas of teachers who have never had their results tested is a recipe for failure.

It is exactly this attitude in our heavily feminised education system that has our kids now at the bottom of the English speaking world in English, Math & Science. No wonder our teachers are terrified of any testing system.