Former communists education system

In Latvia a former Soviet Republic this opinion is shared. Scholars complain that modern education is not good as the old. I never faced any soviet education because I was born in 1988. and started school when Soviet Union already collapsed. So I don't really know if old education was better. I think it was far more stricter and compulsory. Today school students can learn more freely and therefore don't learn many vital things because they don't pay enough attention.  In history many students study history reluctantly many don't learn simply facts like what happened in 11. November 1919. what should be learned in Latvia (it was Latvian victory over German-Russian army of Bermont in the Battle of Riga). That is because they learn the facts for exam and then forget it afterwards. Same thing happens in other sciences like in maths. Government is outraged that most students choose higher education in jurisdiction and economy rather than exact fields and now has made math exam compulsory. A another flaw that Soviet education forced to learn Russian and German. Now Russian and German is optional language and English is compulsory, therefore there a Latvians who don't now Russian because they choose German and otherwise. Both languages is important here- we got 30% Russians in Latvia, and German is important for historians since all Latvian history sources until 19. century is mostly in German. But Soviet system flawed the unimportance of English so large quantity of old generation don't know simple English (even our government MP's have trouble speaking with foreign officials). Soviet system also made possible for Russians to not learn Latvian since Russian was official language in Soviet Union. So now we have a large amount of Russians who don't understand Latvian or simply refuse to speak it. And if they are enforced to learn Latvian they complain that they are discriminated.

What I believe Soviet education system was at its best was military education for all. Everyone was thought how to handle weapons and react in the event of emergency. I am one of few students in my school who had a shooting class because I was at the police class but others don't. When in University a Civil Security course was held it was nightmare for many because it was badly organized and I do not think that anyone learned something about Civil protection in the result.