What is the educational system like in Eastern Europe?

We had an exchange student from Slovakia (my 5 year old wanted to know why we couldn't get one from Fast-vakia!).
ANYWAY, she could barely speak English, but still had all A's on her report card! She said school was soooooooooooo easy here!

One can point out at least four main characteristics of the educational change in Eastern Europe: 1) depolarization of education (i.e., the end of the “communist” ideological control of the system); 2) breaking down of the state monopoly in education by allowing private and denominational schools to be established; 3) increased choices in schooling options; and 4) decentralization in the management and administration of the education system (in particular, the emergence of school autonomy) (Cerych, 1997). Remarkable progress has been made in reforming areas such as curriculum, textbooks, and pedagogy: previously dominant political and ideological references were deleted from course content and textbooks; curricula have been updated; a private textbook industry has emerged vigorously; and significant changes were made in teacher training and evaluation practices. Other areas are fraught with many difficulties and are, accordingly, more difficult to improve. They include: rationalizing the number of institutions, establishing coherent education legislation, redistributing educational property, and redefining local finance and administrative control (Heyneman, 1995, p. 25).

My brother is involved with the Peace Corps in Ukraine, he teaches English to middle-school-aged children. Maybe this is Ukraine-specific, but apparently their education is not very well attended to. Their school days and year are short, the discipline necessary to promote learning amongst all students is lacking, and the textbooks are dated or inaccurate. He has particularly funny anecdotes about his English textbook...he said he has to go in every morning and correct the pages he plans to discuss. When he was teaching expressions of happiness and excitement, the text instructed the kids to say "I am very aroused by that idea!" instead of "I'm excited." And we all know that those two words communicate very different meanings. That said, apparently they are very pro-field-trip. He said they've gone to visit different schools and have taken a couple trips to the forest, where they teach the kids about healthy lifestyle promotion.