Emotional intelligence is more determinant of success than analytical intelligence, though a lack of either will make life hard. It's unfortunate that our schools only teach analytical intelligence. That leaves it to the families and neighborhoods to teach emotional intelligence, but if the entire community lacks it (due to cultural norms, perhaps) then each new generation starts with the same deficits. Despite the inadequacies of public education, one thing it gets right is that whatever it teaches winds up being the new norm for the entire area, so that problems from a given family line can be put to rest in the new generation. Schools should really teach emotional skills like self-awareness, managing one's emotions, and awareness of how other are responding and how to adjust one's presentation to that.
School itself is not the problem, it is the limitation and narrow focus in only including the gradable. Enough within one generation is all it takes to shift the world's societal axis.
The problem is that currently it focuses on what will create workers, not what will create strong individuals with civic consciousness.