I've long held that the education system in Britain (and evidently in the US as well) has basically nothing to do with actually educating people and everything to do with churning out adequate test scores and office workers. If any actual education happens, that's just an optional side-effect.
I swear to God, part of the problem of literacy is that we make kids read SO MANY books like this. Of course they’re going to associate reading with misery! We put them in a Skinner box and shock them when they read, what did people THINK would happen?