Editing Literacy (section)

====China====
{{main|Education in the People's Republic of China}}
The Chinese government conducts standardized testing to assess proficiency in [[Standard Chinese]], known as ''Putonghua'', but this is primarily for foreigners or those needing to demonstrate professional proficiency in the [[Beijing]] dialect. While literacy in Chinese can be assessed by reading comprehension tests, just as in other languages, historically, literacy has often been judged by the number of Chinese characters introduced during the speaker's schooling, with a few thousand considered the minimum for practical literacy.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

The CIA World Factbook says 96.7% of Chinese people are literate;<ref name="World-Factbook-China" /> however, social science surveys in China have repeatedly found that just over half the population of China is conversant in spoken ''Putonghua''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=7 March 2007 |title=More than half of Chinese can speak mandarin |work=China View |url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-03/07/content_5812838.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070315211818/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-03/07/content_5812838.htm |archive-date=15 March 2007}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=6 September 2013 |title=Beijing says 400 million Chinese cannot speak Mandarin |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-23975037}}</ref> In classical Chinese civilization, access to literacy for all classes originated with [[Confucianism]], where previously literacy was generally limited to the aristocracy, merchants, and priests.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}