From my baised perspective (I am a student so I have some sinister things to say >:) )
A good chunk of the problem is that the education knocks the will to learn from you. If learning
could be made more enjoyable, then maybe some of these problem will dissapear.
To give an example
A few months ago, I had studied 15 hours for one engineering exam (just an average midterm)
I did not just know how solve problems with a few equations, I knew how to DERIVE the equations themselves.
In spite of that, I wound up witha lousy 70. (The exact average of the class)
However, I find that reading the book and solving problems without/ decreased pressure for good grades makes
learning much more fun.
That is a big reason why I can more easily remember things I read by myself (biographies, periodicals, social science, history etc)
rather than stressful school things which caused me sleeping problems the past year.
Here is an interesting take on education (I have not read the book so I dont know how accurate the information is)