For some reason I end up in a lot of debates on relative school quality between countries across the world (presumably because I live in another country than I

For some reason I end up in a lot of debates on relative school quality between countries across the world (presumably because I live in another country than I was born in, and because I work with academics a lot...) Many have an opinion on country X's school system being better than country Y's. Most of the time, this opinion isn't based on results, it seems (from my off-the-cuff analysis) that school are generally considered 'better' if they are 'stricter' (i.e., place more emphasis on discipline and respect, for example school who let people eat in class must be horrible), and the amount of hard science they teach everyone from a young age on (e.g., teaching everyone hard science more than the basics is better than just teaching those with an affinity for it, and teaching it starting at 6 is better than teaching at 12). However, people can seldom back that up with evidence. For example, using artificial metrics such as scores in the various Olympiads (math, physics) or more 'utilitarian' metrics such as GDP (because people do use the prosperity of a country, for which GDP is a rough proxy, to justify their preferences, or rather they use it as a driving factor in the optimization function that use to determine which country's school system is 'best'). I get into a bitter argument with my mother, of all people, over this, with her unmovable stance being that in my home country, education is better because schools are strict, pupils address teachers with an honorific, etc; while in the country that I live in, that is much less important. (I'm not Asian and this is not an East vs West debate :) ) Yet in my current country, GDP is higher than in my home country, with many other things being similar; while I have no hard proof that the school system is the only or even a major driver of this difference, wouldn't it make sense that I'd send my daughter to a school in a system that has proven its real-world effectiveness, even if aspects of it go against the common wisdom or 'cultural intuitions' that I was brought up in, and that many in my old country still adhere to? While I guess it would be hard for many to admit that they've believed in things that turned out to be wrong for decades (I personally had that problem less because I never quite identified with the ethos of my old country that much), I'd say rationally that it's more likely that that part of the culture is wrong, rather than there being some extreme coincidence in which, despite having a substandard schooling system, many of the effects of that schooling system in my new country turned out better than those of the old country. Sorry that this turned into such a long post - I just find it frustrating that, in this debate just like in so many others ;), it's common for people to ignore any evidence-based analysis of this question, or restrict themselves to that evidence that is favorable to their standpoint; and I do think that general prosperity is a direct consequence of a well-performing educational system.