I agree with you in the point that English is the most spoken and useful ******** in the world
But in our country French ******** is easier for children because it has a lot of common vocabularies with our daily dialect and children can practice the ******** outside the classroom, so I think today’s system is logic.
I studied English in primary school and it was not a successful experience, maybe because of this reason, or because of unqualified teachers, I am not sure.