an important question to ask is, what about the students who now have a high school diploma who otherwise would not have one, and are not going to attend colleg

an important question to ask is, what about the students who now have a high school diploma who otherwise would not have one, and are not going to attend college? I bet they are better off, and, unfortunately, are likely a large portion, if not the majority, of high school graduates in that region. I agree there is a problem here, but am afraid it is not as simple as "durr, their high school is too easy." There are kids in those schools who will _need_ that diploma; of course, making things easier will devalue the diploma in the long run, so making things easy is no solution, but you can't entirely fault them for focusing hard on getting the students to pass exams. It's more like a symptom of larger system we live in, where having that diploma is simply far, far better than not having it. (whether it carries any real meaning or not)