In Africa, the progress of education was tardy until the latter half of the 20th century. The whole region had just about 82,916 schools by 1980, a number that has since risen to 169,800. The African literacy rate has gone up from 18.33% in 1980 to 64.8% in 2001. Today, the states of Nigeria and Congo represent two extremes of African paradox. In Nigeria, the literacy rate is 90.86%, whereas in Congo, it is still in the range of 47%. Nigeria's achievement is considerably remarkable, considering that the situation there was not much different from that in Congo just a decade or two back. Still, the largest segment of the world's illiterates is in Africa. The governments are indeed putting in lots of efforts. The mass education policy, launched by UNESCO in 2001, has largely ensured that by the end of this decade all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years will attend school and will complete 8 years of schooling. Important components of the scheme are the Education Guarantee Scheme and the Alternative and Innovative Education Scheme, meant for children where there is no formal school within a radius of one kilometer.