Bucket, I couldn't agree with you more.
Having done both the JAR and the SA licences, they are incomparable in the level of knowledge, attitudes and outcomes the students end up with. It is hard even to compare the two systems at all, even though one is supposed to mirror the other. The SA system has a long long way to go before it catches up to JAR, one way of helping will be to have the mandatory groundschool, although this will end up cutting down the number of new pilots I think as the cost will rise. When I did the JAR I spent 9 months in full time college at a cost of something like 6000 pounds, and when I did the SA I spent a couple weeks or so reading someones notes at a cost of nothing.