I've seen this meme before, I believe it was a feature of Red Dawn, or Heartland, or some similar film, that the dictatorship feels the need to level everyone to some "egalitarian mode". In reality, Communist regimes are just the opposite, lavishing attention and training on promising youth (particularly athletes!), whether they want it or not, and ignoring everyone's desire to pursue a career of their liking and instead forcing them into fields where either the state has a need, or where their examination systems decides they are are most suitable.

Of course, part of the deal is that they then refused to let you leave the country because "the People" had invested so much in your training. I had a friend in Mountain View whose wife was Russian and had been forced by the state to pursue a doctorate in physics, which she successfully completed, but which she loathed. She wanted to be a dancer, and preferred being a mediocre American ballerina in the chorus than a top-of-the line researcher at the Institute. It was so sad, she hated all science as a result. But at least she got to keep her figure.

I can guess from your tone what "tall poppy" is all about, although I have no children and am not familiar with what is going on in schools (I've seen enough to know I don't like it.) In my opinion, this is misguided racial politics administered by local school boards with too much power, too sensitive to parental pressure, and too much access to modern psychological and educational pseudoscience. I suspect my feelings on this issue are not much different from yours, although perhaps for different reasons.

My own upbringing stressed educational achievement, although my family disapproved of my career choices ("What good is astronomy? All you can do is teach.") But due to the '50s Sputnik panic, my schools and teachers encouraged my interests in science, without actually coercing me into studying it. At least, when I finally convinced myself I was not Nobel Prize material, I had no one to blame but myself.