Speaking from the UK: Yes and no.

After 14 years of Tory scum in charge, arts education in schools is on its arse, because it doesn’t provide workers to grind into a paste once they’ve left education. Indeed, most schools are struggling like fuck because funding kept getting cut while more was being required of them.

As a whole education here is seen as a civic duty to ensure our kids are well-equipped for life in the workforce, but the scope of the education isn’t limited to just what they’d need for that, even if the central focus is.

There's plenty of education-based circle jerking about superiority on both sides of the pond.