I think that not all schools are the same and of course there are many things that could be better. There should be definitely be a little bit more freedom once the kids are older so they could choose which path to take and what to focus on so they would feel more motivated. But I think in general it is necessary for kids to get the basic understanding of things in different fields so they could have a great range of knowledge and hopefully interest what is happening in the world.

Plus of course, all the values that have been mentioned above - how to socialise, become responsible for your own work etc.
As the op said there are not that much talk about real life problems such as loans, taxes etc. but again, I think it differs from school to school, because nowadays so many schools have classes for example in economics where they cover such things. Often these things are not mandatory and people don't take these classes.