Makes me glad to be a product of the UK educational system. Streamed classes by ability, national exams at 16 and 18, the first year of three at university (majority of courses are 3 year) is to recap last year of school. It's demanding, a pain in the ass and very tiring, but just learning enough to spew it all back in exams probably leaves you with fairly adequate education (assuming that you pass a reasonable number of exams - failing to do this is a BAD THING.)

Validation? What the school wants is high exam grades, and they can't water down the tests to boost the results so they have to push the students.

drakensisthered

So I simply said one of the great trite truths: "There is generally more than one side to a story." - Corwin, Roger Zelazny's 'Courts of Chaos'