I would say that certainly the JAA ATPL theory syllabus straddles the border between 'education' and 'training'.
I do not believe that having an element of education is necessarily a bad thing - it can give a broad basis of knowledge upon which further training can be built more easily. The theory portion of the licensing process is the most obvious place to integrate this.
For me, the crux of the matter is whether the education/training balance is correct, and to an extent what the topics of education are.