Not sure if they still do it but when I joined the military I had to pass a basic reasoning skills test. I think that would be alot more useful.

In the several states where I have seen statistics, there is a strong correlation between HE/HS classes and a reduction in the number of "incidents" despite, in some cases, increased numbers of hunters.

Back during the Rem 700 unsafe rifle debates (on another forum) after the expose came out on them, one of the posters noted that all of the folks in the expose and that he could find online that shot themselves or shot somebody else with a Rem 700 (the incident blamed on the Walker trigger) and sued Remington had NOT been involved in such programs. The point being made was that for injuries and deaths to have resulted (almost all were in pre hunt, hunt, or post hunt circumstances) were readily avoidable. Whether or not the discharge was truly the fault of the rifle is immaterial as the injuries/death related to unsafe handling during hunting-related situations. As noted with the example above, many of the incidents were by life long shooters and hunters with decades of experience.

Overall value is safety in the field. If you look at the data before Hunter Education and post hunter education the number of hunting accidents has dropped. For quite some time most hunting accidents have involved those that have not taken in the course due to being grandfathered and not required to take the course or those that have not taken the course. The rest well you cannot fix stupid.

Here's a link to the 2013 Texas Hunting Accident Analysis. The first few pages have some basic stats on hunting accidents back to 1966 and discuss pre and post hunting ed numbers a bit.

https://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_rp_k0700_1124_2013.pdf