The trouble is that there's a strong tendency in UK journalism these days to treat anything the UK is doing as obviously wrong and any alternative as obviously better and ignore evidence that contradicts this, and the Guardian is one of the worst offenders. (This doesn't just apply to education; for example, the British press like to blame our energy woes on the government focusing on offshore wind and push onshore wind and solar as magical solutions, even though the offshore wind push was a roaring success that other countries want to copy and onshore wind and solar were already struggling even before the shift in focus.)