> In an ideal world, every student can be accommodated in the learning ecosystem, and we don't require a standardized metric to figure out if a student should a

> In an ideal world, every student can be accommodated in the learning ecosystem, and we don't require a standardized metric to figure out if a student should advance to the next level. I live in an ideal world, then. In my country (PT), education is free and mandatory for 12 years. After the 9th grade, students do their first selection of objective in their student careers. It's here that they are given the choice between technical course or a track oriented towards university. They then study three more years and either proceed to the workforce, to Bsc degrees (3 years) or to Msc degrees (5 years). University, while not free, is not expensive. Tuition is about a thousand euros per year. Even so, we have some of the highest tuition in Europe. Of course, there are dropouts, and some of them economically motivated. It's a problem being worked on. Dropout rate (students not completing the 12 years of mandatory school) was 50% in the 90s, is now below 20% and dropping. It follows that your assessment that we are nowhere near being able to provide education to all of society is plain wrong, at least in Western countries.