This is a pretty consistent theme around the world. A lot of the gains in educational attainment seem to have come from reducing the standard required to obtain the credentials.
For example, 100 years worth of exam papers could be written all at once, and questions shuffled so the exam paper each year has the same difficulty.
For France, it was eye opening ( and the same for the French side of Switzerland)
How so?
One needs to understand that kids are spending at least 2 less years in school from 6 to 18. We are lying to the kids, parents and ourselves.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/1912-eighth-grade-exam_n_3744...
Not sure any kid today would understand the sentence "Decline I." though.