Literacy depends on how you read the figures

There is currently a fierce debate in the UK on the standards of literacy in schools, with many reports that children are leaving primary school at the age of 11 without reading, writing and counting skills. Reading skills of seven year olds in 1991 were around three months behind those of seven year olds in 1987 according to a reading test carried out by the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) but an independent researcher found that reading standards among primary children in Suffolk had fallen by by four times this figure between 1980 and 1990, a claim disputed by the NFER.