Queensland's ailing education system

In my happy travels around the Internet, I came upon this article in the Queensland Courier Mail.

THE Bligh Government has sent out an SOS over the state's ailing education system after admitting the model it has overseen for more than a decade is not working.
Premier Anna Bligh yesterday announced an education specialist from Victoria would conduct a wide-ranging review into Queensland's increasingly poor academic performance.
Queensland Year 4 students finished last in science and seventh in maths out of Australia's eight states and territories in an international mathematics and science study, it was revealed on Tuesday.
Even students from Russia and the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan performed better...

The article goes on, and feel free to read the full article (here) but I thought the first part was interesting to have a look at.

First of all; yeah the Queensland education system isn't working. Duh. They actually tried out this failing system for over a decade. which basically means a whole generation of kids were "educated" under a system that even the government says is crap.

Next point; Queensland, students finished 8th and 7th out of eight states in science and maths respectively. At face value, that sounds pretty bad, but does anyone else see the irony here?

If you're going to rate anything on a scale of first to last, then *someone* has to be last. If Queensland actually manages to get their kids to ace their tests next year, then some other state will be last. It's never ending. And it's EXACTLY the same scoring system they apply to students in the classes. No matter how fantastic the children are, there's always going to be one kid who's "the worst".

One might have hoped the government might employ someone intelligent enough to see that and simply stop the whole ranking system. Home schooling anyone?

And lastly, "Even students from Russia and the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan performed better."

Racism anyone? Classism?
It makes me so pissed off, I can't even say anything about that. It speaks for itself really.