Teachers are restricted by the curriculum or the principal, so students are restricted too... yet hard to blame. There is the systematic fault! System justification theory: If you break free from this, you will know that the contradictions of school are mostly the archaicness of school system itself, not the teachers nor the students.

Students are OKAY!

Teachers are good-intentioned!

Good minded to help in exams, when it is axiomatic that the ends need the means!

But the thing is that it restricts freedom of teaching, adds time pressure and stress to teach the syllabus. It is sad that teachers are stressed too.