Serving students like Georgios is one of the things the Soviet Union did very well (of course, there was still discrimination against eg Jews).

In the US, it’s not only disrupted by the activists briefly mentioned in the article, but by the mediocre part of the elite that would rather have such a system not exist or be easily gamed/rigged than to have it exist and their child not in it. Given the more classist nature of life in the UK I’m sure this is even moreso a factor there.