> still lacking even basic education The world literacy rate and trend is supposedly pretty good. However, there are large differences in how literacy is measu

> still lacking even basic education The world literacy rate and trend is supposedly pretty good. However, there are large differences in how literacy is measured and huge uncertainties in the numbers. In some countries you're considered to be literate if you can sign your name, in others they just report 99-100% without doing any measurements. UNESCO have plans for a better test to be applied globally, but I'm not sure any test that would lower the numbers would ever be welcomed.