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i hope you're kidding.
I don't know about UK but education in America is a joke compared to the education we received in USSR.
We started physics in 5th grade. In 9th grade we were doing 7th order equations. Then I came to USA and learned NOTHING in high school. Then I went to a private university and on my 2nd year finally got to revisit the same kind of math I was doing 7 years ago in Kiev. The university I attended here in NY is notorious for being one of the hardest with freshman dropout rate of 70%.
In USSR if you didn't do well in school your parents would BEAT YOU until you did better. They would beat you as much as it took. in America I would sit in class with my Sony minidisk player and headphones on my head and EXPLAIN THE SUBJECT TO MY TEACHER when i was bored.
Our education requirements are not strong enough. I agree.
I think it likely that this is, in part, due to attempts at making it easier for some students to advance, which would have caused them to study far more than more gifted ones, thus alienating them from their "peers". In other words, possibly hurting their feelings, a known horror to be avoided at all costs (including the education level of those who could do better).
However, from the sound of things, you may be very good at math (I myself am probably average), and in the USSR they likely recognized that and focused on it in their instruction of you. This has it’s advantages (improving an area that is already a strength), but if they reduced your instruction in other areas it would limit your overall education to an extent.
Now, as to the beating of kids if they did poorly, that cannot be done in the USA at this time (at least not without repercussions for the parents). And further, I personally think there are better ways, which avoid potential mental/physical harm to a child.