We should rethink the conventional assumption that an undergraduate university course should be full-time at age 18 or 19. Perhaps we could change social norms so that it is usually part-time, made more accessible to more people, and undertaken later? That would reduce the insane pressure that the demands of university entrance at 18 or 19 now put on student at school, a pressure so antipathetic to the ideal of education for autonomous well-being. It would free up those years from 14 or so for pupils to throw themselves into all kinds of worthwhile pursuits - to lose themselves in them. This would be a far cry from the exam-dominated regime they have to suffer at the moment. It would also do something to prevent the education system becoming a device for separating Life's Winners from Life's Losers. (p. 15-6)
From John White's, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Education, University of London, "What does it mean to be well-educated?" Think, Vol. 10 (Summer 2011), pp. 9-16.
Apparently, the ideal education system is one thing and the society another. The cruel fact of the society is that it celebrates winners and keep mercy out of the possible reach of losers and is by all means a winner-take-all playground. Pick winners sooner and kick losers not later.
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