[bojan]

In my view its about equal opportunity here - While private schools will always provide the necessary basics for further education (including algebra), the public sector, which depends on government money will not.
This may eventually lead to elitism based on money and background ("blue blood"... ) while the nation as a whole will be impoverished for all those talents that simply didn't have the opportunity to develop (because there was not enough money in family to pay for private education). And, once you are above the certain age, the (bad) working habits are already established and it's much harder (if at all possible) to get back on track.
Perhaps I am expressing a bit "leftist" view here (all my education was obtained overseas, and whatever I achieved may have not been possible if was born in Australia for example), but in my life I have seen both sides of that coin.
You just have to look at the number of high trained people in Australian companies for example and compare their educational background (geographically and culturally) to come to the obvious conclusions.