As I see it, there are two closely-related causes for the present sorry state of education:

First is society's current philosophical rudderlessness. Over the last 2 centuries, or so, society has rejected all moral certainties, so that now there is perceived to be no basis for authority. If there is no authority, what right has one person to teach another? Or assert that this spelling is right, that wrong? Thus arose the popular current idea that kids should be "encouraged to learn", rather than taught. It sounds very enlightened, but has caused untold damage. And a welcome move away from it may be discerned, I think.

Second, for identical reasons, no one has any right to discipline (=punish) another, so that now teachers spend all their time trying to maintain some semblance of order in their classes, and the success of a lesson is judged by whether it did or didn't degenerate into a riot, not by whether the kids actually learned anything. Unfortunately, I can see no move away from this at present (in England, anyway).

When I was at school (40 years ago), all the philosophical conditions that have led to the current educational mayhem were in place, but they hadn't percolated down into the educational establishment, so that I was taught and punished (and am now grateful for that). But the fat's really in the fire, now.