The general player base needs to improve

[Fyce]

It's a step in the right direction, but it's a yard when in need of a mile.

Well, I don't want to say that it'd be impossible to go further than simply making people aware of their performances and trying to show that it's something important, but then next step of actually teaching them how to properly play is a dangerous thing to dive in.
Either you put hard restrictions on content like some people suggest (mandatory SSS, for example) -which will most likely make people stop playing instead of them trying to pass the exam-, or you try doing soft solutions like the Novice Hall -which will most likely be simply ignored by players, leaving things in the same state-.

So, while I agree that something amongst the lines of what I suggested is not enough, the question is, can we actually do more? I mean, literally. Does a definitive solution exists? As far as MMORPG history showed us, it doesn't seem to be. And if there is, I don't think that FFXIV will be innovative enough to find and properly implement it.

I guess the tl;dr would be "Assuming we get people's attention on the matter, how do we actually teach them? And more importantly, how do we make them want to learn?"