"As for India: what percentage of Indian kids get a full education?"<p>An increasing percentage over time.
The question at hand was about aspiration and what a society works towards, not the measure of success achieved to date. By this logic, unless you've conquered intergalactic space travel already, you can't aspire to a space program.<p>How many people in India <i>aspire</i> to give their kids a full scientific education? Practically everyone, even the desperately poor. Has the number of kids getting an education  been increasing or decreasing over time? Teh former.<p>Does India deliver a high quality education to every kid born in the country? Not at all. But we are working towards it. There are <i>huge</i> problems to be solved and progress is slow.<p>And it varies over India too. In my home state of Kerala we have 100 % literacy and almost every kid goes to school till 15 years or so. (No evolution phobia either btw ;-)). In Bihar,(say) many kids drop out due to poverty and remain illiterate or barely literate.<p>The original question was "Is there a (developed, or developing) country in the world right now with a healthy respect for education and intellectualism?"<p>Respect for learning and intellectuals is the issue. A country could have a great educational system and still disdain intellectuals - the United States say?<p>The question was about societies that respected education.In India (and China I dare say) an uneducated man <i>respects</i> the educated man, vs disdaining him as an intellectual snob. We are <i>proud</i> that our Prime Minister is a PhD from Oxford. He doesn't have to face accusations of "elitism" like Obama does. We are <i>proud</i> that our last President was a rocket scientist.