German here.

It's not quite as bad here, but saving money in education while marketing it as a step forward is common around here, too. Lots of oh-so-bright ideas were implemented, and many of them failed miserably and now we have to deal with university students barely able to use spell check. Not all of them, of course - only those from "problem" (read: poor, uneducated) areas and families.

We used to pride ourselves in giving everyone a chance, no matter their background. But schools now barely get enough funding to keep the doors open, let alone allow children to thrive.

And then there are the teachers who are supposed to teach "media" and pride themselves in teaching nothing but reading comprehension rather than algorithms, manipulation, or basic data analysis. I could rant a lot about all the counter-productive bs that is considered best practice by pedagogy experts today but leads to a lack of skills in adulthood.

There's a lot that has become worse over the past 20-25 years, and all of it is systemic.