When I was a student what I liked the most was that bad students couldn´t pass to the next level of education so easily, for example if you failed three subjects you had to repeat the course even if you had already repeated it, thereforethe students who wanted to study had more opportunities as they didn´t have to deal with bad manners and behavior from uninterested pupils.
On the other hand what it was worse was that we had teachers who were not as preared as they are now, for example P.E. teachers.