I’m talking about kids between 6 and 11 years old so dropping out in 9th grade seems not completely relevant. But if we’re talking about subsegments of the population bringing down the average, removing a few low performing states from the US would drastically change the average here too.

>requires more effort to be completely literate, but only a year or two of more effort compensated for by a more accelerated math in elementary school

I’m not sure what you meant by compensated for. I’m discussing the differences between writing systems. Not which country has a better education system.