Philippines: Punishing the students?

most developed countries have a 12 year school system, plus kindergarten, pre-k, that adds on 2 years at the begining, so many or most students have 13 or 14 years if you add pre-k. IMHO the european system is better than the US system. In europe they have about 8 years of basic education then students are divided into 2 main groups in the final years of school. one group is college preparatory courses, with heavy emphasis on mathematics, science, literature, history etc. while the other group places emphasis on more practical job skills, which qualify the student for good paying jobs after graduation, such as mechanic, cooks, clerical, computer techs, etc. In the USA most students get a similar college preparatory type education, and many of these students do not enroll or thrive in college, and are instead left unemployed because they have few useful skills, much of thier education is wasted. silly really, it has something to do with a USA obsession with 'equal education' and trying to force all the kids to take courses that are only suited for a minority of the more academic types, this results in poor academic performance and high drop out rates.