I wasn't blaming the corps, though they do have their problems. As someone from the EU, and who's been to several countries, I can say - the decline in education quality has dropped worldwide, at least according to what I've noticed. In my home country, it went from having to redo junior grades because of failed exams, to practically what you described. Functioning illiterates being pulled through, no matter how well they do in their studies.
Imo, it's more of a societal issue. If the school system is too strict and too many kids are failing, the parents will demand softening it. When it's softened too much, you get whatever we've had for the past at least 10 years. Now we're (at least in my country) turning it around again, making it more difficult. It's fun to watch from the sidelines, but trying to survive in that mess must not be so fun.
They'll probably have to, and much sooner than that. Just having a degree means nothing if the "student" has no knowledge and/or skills to back it up after gaining said degree. That's why higher education means little in the job market now. Not counting the fact that the competition is through the roof - it just isn't anything to go by anymore, if you're an employer. People have always complained that "school" doesn't prepare them for real life, but now that's especially glaring. If primary and middle school doesn't at least prepare its students for further studies, it's a fundamental failure at a systemic level.
lol sorry. yeah, its been obvious we MUST do something for a long time. but we're good at identifying what needs fixing then ignoring it forever and convincing a few million backwoods rednecks that its in their best interest that theyre poor and dying.
On the upside, the US has what, 300M population? If there are issues on the federal level, that's a ton of people not to ignore. In my tiny country, we're less than 2M total. I lost count how many "reforms" we've had in recent years, including education. Everyone knows there are problems, there's just either no political will - or power to solve them.
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u/sociofobs Aug 18 '26
I wasn't blaming the corps, though they do have their problems. As someone from the EU, and who's been to several countries, I can say - the decline in education quality has dropped worldwide, at least according to what I've noticed. In my home country, it went from having to redo junior grades because of failed exams, to practically what you described. Functioning illiterates being pulled through, no matter how well they do in their studies.
Imo, it's more of a societal issue. If the school system is too strict and too many kids are failing, the parents will demand softening it. When it's softened too much, you get whatever we've had for the past at least 10 years. Now we're (at least in my country) turning it around again, making it more difficult. It's fun to watch from the sidelines, but trying to survive in that mess must not be so fun.