This is how

This is how other nations build themselves, block by block, alphabet by alphabet. In 1868, as part of its restoration, the government of Japan set up an education committee, forming several sub-groups to examine how students were educated in different parts of the world. On returning, they created a 200-year education plan for Japan and within the next 40 years, Japan became the first Asian country to become 100 per cent literate.

In China, more recently, after the chaos of the cultural revolution, Deng Xiaoping re-introduced the university system. There was a large-scale upgrade of colleges to universities, campuses were built in a frenzied fashion, universities were merged and enrolment was expanded on a mass scale. The result: if in 1977, only one in 32 students could enter university, by 2003, the number increased to 13.2 per cent.