Charles Dickens vs The World

Every now and then, a thought would enter my head: why are so many people championing the non-English writer? Just a feeling I would get when, once again, I'd come across someone's list of 'bests'. Annoying.
Today, I came across this in the online version of the Daily Express:
http://www.sundayexpress.co.uk/posts/view/40373/Why-do-schools-ignore-Charles-Dickens
(That wasn't me commenting on the piece at the end - though solvey probably won't believe me as he believes I've been sending him some rather artful stuff in his email! My protestations have fallen on deaf ears.)
Dickens' writing is some of the most powerful and human ever written. His depiction of the lives of his fellow countrymen is so perceptive and graphic that the reader is transported into the past with barely an effort beyond the simple reading of his words. He is, without doubt, the greatest writer ever of the written word as presented in the form of a novel, either short or full length.
I don't get it, myself, why there is this almost-shunning of his work. Why?
I've had a think. I can come up with two reasons: one, it isn't perceived as cool to place him above foreign writers, who don't even come close; and two, Dickens is an eloquent reminder of how this country - in the form of government at the very least - has mistreated its overwhelmingly working class population since the year dot. The Government still allows its people to be mistreated - the paltry wages people are paid in almost all areas of any working environment is one tiny example. Dickens saw this. He and his family had, of course, been a victim of this mistreatment.
Shakespeare spoke of mighty rulers and mighty falls, tragedies, noble enactments. All great writing and I love it, too. I am not surprised how he is regarded as the greatest - unchallenged, as he is so much more acceptable to the powers-that-be than a writer who told it how it really was.
There isn't a single character in the history of literature in the whole of the entire world who can better Oliver Twist. Even though he was in a work of fiction, Oliver Twist was a reflection of reality. And he was lucky, would you believe! You only have to read about chimney sweeps and the use of what became known as Climbing Boys, starting as young as six, who became alcoholics and died of cancer by the time they were the age of about twelve - ideal for their employers, as they would have then been too big to climb up the chimneys! You may wish to quote me David Copperfield and Ebeneezer Scrooge. I hope you do! They are from the same author, in case you don't actually know this. And if you don't, then I hope you go off immediately to find about them. You will be rewarded. Your soul will soak it all in like no writer you have ever read, or will ever read. Of course, you will be faced with a work of great length - although A Christmas Carol is not too long a piece if you need a good starting point.
Now then, you might quote me Peter Pan. Hmmm.