Like most education in modern day it ultimately comes down to rote memorization. Which necessitates long hours drilling ultimately irrelevant information into your head.

Which traces its roots to what early public education was meant for. It was meant to Train Factory Workers, Clerks, and the assorted members of a rising middle class in an industrializing society. In how to operate and maintain their advanced society. Not necessarily advance it.

Also why bells are often used to signal switches between classes. Conditioning people to respond to shift-change bells.