The author, Simon Kuper, is British and studied at Oxford (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Kuper), so while he may be wrong, it's not because he's unfamiliar with the country or the eduction system.
He has a British passport.
He was born in Uganda of South African parents, spent his childhood in the Netherlands, "also lived in Stanford, California, Berlin and London", and studied at Oxford and Harvard. He currently lives in France.
He should stay there :)