Is the ability to speak like "Her Majesty" necessary to get on in modern society?

'It is important that we teach children that, to get on, they must speak standard English with an RP accent'

Now this statement may seem to be very patronising and prejudice, but despite this, there are certain factors of it that could actually be true...

Don't get me wrong, I believe that regional accents are brilliant and should not be irradiated from the UK. That would not only be absurd. But it would make our country very, VERY boring indeed. Unfortunately however, certain dialects can hold back young people and what they want to do later on in life if they at the very least, don't know when it is necessary to use a more RP accent over their own regional one.

There have been many studies that have concluded in specific accents being overall perceived as "uneducated" and far "less intelligent", something that is definitely not the case but is not going to be changing anytime soon. Lance Workman, senior lecturer at the University of South Wales, said that Britons made huge assumptions about intelligence based on regional accents and, on average, made up their minds within two minutes. Those hailing from Birmingham were considered to be the least intelligent in studies he conducted. Because of this, finding a high prestige job is a lot harder as a person with a Brummie accent since they are typically perceived as less smart than people with accents such as RP, whom of which are seen as the most intelligent.

This is why I think it is important for schools to not necessarily teach children to only speak in RP, but to teach them how to switch between their regional accent when in casual talks or around family/friends, and a more RP driven accent using standard English rather than colloquialisms and slang, such as 'bab' for 'dear/love' or 'cob' for a bread roll. So that when young people go for a job interview for example, they are treated seriously and there is no form of language barrier between certain regional terms.

In conclusion, I believe that the statement is both right and wrong in a way, and that the best solution is not necessarily to completely abandon the wide variety of regional accents in the UK by teaching children to speak in an RP accent, but to instead teach them the ability to switch between speaking casually and in standard English, the reason being that the country favours certain accents due to prejudice. Which in turn leaves particular groups of people feeling discriminated against, especially in a professional or formal environment.