What is the global situation in relation to literacy?

READ TEXT IV AND ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION:

TEXT IV

What is the global situation in relation to literacy?

Great progress has been made in literacy with most recent data (UNESCO Institute for Statistics) showing that more than 86 per cent of the world’s population know how to read and write compared to 68 per cent in 1979. Despite this, worldwide at least 754 million adults still cannot read and write, two thirds of them women, and 250 million children are failing to acquire basic literacy skills. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the worst disruption to education in a century, 617 million children and teenagers had not reached minimum reading levels.

Acquiring literacy is not a one-off act. Beyond its conventional concept as a set of reading, writing and counting skills, literacy is now understood as a means of identification, understanding, interpretation, creation, and communication in an increasingly digital, text-mediated, information-rich and fast-changing world.

Literacy is a continuum of learning and proficiency in reading, writing and using numbers throughout life and is part of a larger set of skills, which include digital skills, media literacy, education

for sustainable development and global citizenship as well as job- specific skills. Literacy skills themselves are expanding and evolving

as people engage more and more with information and learning through digital technology.

Literacy empowers and liberates people. Beyond its importance as part of the right to education, literacy improves lives by expanding capabilities which in turn reduces poverty, increases participation in the labour market and has positive effects on health and sustainable development.

Adapted from https://www.unesco.org/en/literacy/need-know

The verb phrase in “Great progress has been made” (1^st paragraph) is in the