Having said that my school was not bad and if you wanted to learn about this sort of thing it was available to learn. In fact crazy as it sounds if you were hopeless at maths as I was you learned more about real life than those in the higher sets. We learned how to balance your bank account, read gas and electric meters, budget shopping lists etc etc. I think they took the view we would not have much idea with figures so try to put it over in everyday situations personally I thought she was a great idea shame the exam subject of arithmetic is thought much less useful than maths.
Back when I went to high school college track students took theoretical math like Calculus and Trig, and the non-college track took commewrcial math.