Well I don't know what Troed is referring to but my kid in the first grade is doing "Letter of the week" for the fourth time. (He learned them the first time 3 years ago in kindergarten). They also use something called Bornholmsmodellen that is from the last century and has been highly criticized for not encouraging curiosity nor building interest.
It really doesn't seem feasible, I mean how are they going to get the third world children there to mine it?