I blame the schools, this should be standard fare, surely ?
Does anyone here remember doing geography or history?
Oi. We teach what we're told to teach. This doesn't include everything there is to know about everything
With respect to teachers, those who do set the syllabus should concentrate more on basic spelling, grammar, punctuation and, of course, basic arithmetic.
When I first started, teachers were much more at liberty to teach what they thought best. Personally, I have always maintained that English language and maths are the two subjects that should take the highest priority, certainly at primary level.
Then the government brought in the National Curriculum and appointed 'experts' to tell us what to teach and how to teach it, and education in this country has been in decline ever since. Shortly afterwards, a number of 'mickey mouse' subjects appeared including PSHE (Google it), which is basically what parents used to teach their own children as a normal part of growing up. Consequently, less and less time became available to teach the important stuff.
I believe that the NC was put in place to counteract a small minority of schools that weren't quite up to standard. What is has done is tie teachers' hands and create a much larger proportion of schools that do not make the grade.