Will you excuse the school for continually promoting him when he was doing so poorly?
The school I went to would not let you advance if you failed a subject (with a few exceptions). You failed math? You don't get promoted. No exceptions.
Of course, my school may have had its own set of problems, but this sounds like the opposite extreme.
No - and I'm guessing my misunderstanding is based on "not-being-American".
I'm British and school (at least when I was there)'s purpose was passing a set of exams when you're 16 and then another optionally at 18.
There were informal exams throughout, to tack progress.
Occasionally it was suggested a pupil was held back a year (if they were so far behind, they wouldn't benefit from the next year) - but that was pretty extreme.
Normally pupils were just streamed, so they were put in a class of comparable ability the next year. If they did well they might go up, if they didn't they might go down.
If you hit an exam in a low stream, you might get pushed towards an easier exam (with a lower maximum grade available)
Basically you as a pupil, were never in any doubt as to your trajectory.
