Why Sunday School?

Can someone explain to me why we have Sunday School each Sunday? I mean, yeah, so that we can learn about gospel topics, i’ve got that—but while i can see the need for sacrament meeting attendance (by canon, in fact), and i can see a claim made for the necessity of priesthood meetings (since they’re supposed to sit in council together, as the book of Doctrine and Covenants puts it), why Sunday School?

In fact, i wonder whether the church leadership sees Sunday School as necessary. After all, the quarterly reports that go to the church don’t include how many attend Sunday School meetings, whereas pretty much every other of the Sunday meetings has attendance numbers reported. It simply makes me wonder whether Sunday School is as important to the central administration of the church as other parts of the Sunday meetings. (Especially since Sunday School attendance numbers did used to be reported.)

Of course, then we’d only be meeting for two hours each Sunday, and obviously that would mean we were on the high road to apostasy. Fewer meetings? Never!!