"I don't see the point in eliminating accents and dialects..."

Neither do I.... they DO make the world more interesting and provide continuity in culture. I have NO objection to preserving tradition and having a comfortable way to speak in their neighborhoods.
I just wish more places had something similar to the Umgangsprache in Germany, or the standardized high-level language the Swiss employ - especially written for the use. This way, even though areas might have their colloquial differences, they could also have a general "almost everyone understands it" way of communicating.
In the USA and most industrialized countries, it would be the 'basic' form used on the 'National' television news programs.

In this country, there are problems in many school systems as programs are often faced with many students who do poorly because they don't 'get' basic instructions.

This might seem a bit of a departure from the thread topic, but it applies in a world where many folks visit other countries for education...or just as tourists.

(*grin*...I had an interesting debate with MGAS (Hil) at the Getaway as we debated what my very large box of a Dodge vehicle was called...a van? a camper? a caravan?.. I think we settled on 'that very large vehicle')