Having done 2nd grade in the Philippines and the rest of my education in the USA, I would say that their schooling is much more difficult and they are pushed harder. In addition the school days were longer and the culture there really promoted the importance of academic success. Here in the USA it's almost frowned upon to some degree-- if you're smart, you're a nerd.

And yes, at least in my area (Southeast USA) people do not know punctuation rules. Most of them write okay, but comma splices, apostrophes, semicolons, etc. would trip them up.