Students are respected as individuals, given all kinds of opportunities to develop themselves and organise themselves as young intellectuals. Teachers are respected as individuals and are allowed to develop themselves as professionals. The whole school is indeed an environment where individuals discover their own potentials, make their own decisions and hence are equipped to master their own future. That is that school life is for. School life is preparation for future life in the society.
Students have to gather knowledge.
They have to pass examinations. But to live in a society requires much more than academic knowledge and examinations. I don't think anyone would dispute this statement. Nor would anyone dispute that extra-curricular activities are essential to meaningful school life. However, I would argue that it is not an issue of whether or not a school has good examination results or good records of extracurricular activities.