You know, education today does not prepare for life, it's just to give you specialized knowledge, which is too chaotic to be useful... But it does give you some base to start learning a subject of your choice (and start a career). The problem is that after 8th grade we are meant to start thinking about that subject, but we are still supposed to learn everything... Which makes a lot of mess. I am not for shortening education period, but I know that it should be better - maybe we should be able to really choose what we want to learn?
The another problem is the teachers... Not everyone is a good one. And it is meant that way - not everyone should be. But still, we need them and the hiring process does not involve checking the efficiency of teaching... Which is an absurd, because that's what this job is about.