Totally unrelated still writing down my story and thoughts.
I've been through 5 different schools (2000-2016), everytime it changed, in hindsight there was noticable improvement in classroom's though process, and these are people I "grew up with"
Not to downplay on individual's journey, but few of my childhood friends are working as unskilled industrial labour, on the other hand folks which i met later in nicer school albeit with privilege are currently in big tech jobs.
Another anecdote, in 5th grade my classmates were peeking under girls skirts and teachers not giving a damn, gross generalization but it's the type of crowd I'd want to avoid now, in 12th grade my classmates made building's detailed replica in SketchUp.
Another thing is some schools do their part to shield kids from jee/neet grind, and opening up broader possibilities.