When a country boasts one of the highest literacy rates in the world, the headline feels simple: nearly everyone can read and write. Look closer, though, and that tidy statistic opens into a landscape of policy choices, family habits, cultural institutions and stubborn blind spots. High literacy doesn’t arrive by accident. It is the product of long-term investments, everyday practices and sometimes dramatic historical campaigns. This article unpacks what “one of the highest” actually means, how societies get there, what those numbers obscure, and what lessons other places can take from the leaders...