A UN report on Education said, India still has the largest number of illiterate adults in the world, but has made rapid advances in cutting down the numbers of school drop outs. <br/><br/>The Education for All-Global Monitoring Report, released in New York today says that out of the total 759 million illiterate adults in the world, India still has the highest number. <br/><br/>The report said, over half of the illiterate adults live in just four countries, Bangladesh, China, India and Pakistan, adding the progress has been painfully slow and threatens to obstruct the Millennium Development Goals. <br/><br/>It said about 72 million primary school age children and another 71 million adolescents are not at school, and on current trends, 56 million primary school age children will still be out of school in 2015. <br/><br/>The report said, gender disparities remain deeply engrained, with 28 nations across the developing world having nine or fewer girls in school for every 10 boys. UNESCO's top official Irina Bokova said the world body is apprehensive that the financial crisis will cause governments to scale back funding on education.