A literate person has better opportunity to learn ethics and good thinking habits, but they also have better opportunity to confirm their own biases and be manipulated by grifters. It is kind of a wash when it comes to being a good person or not if the rest of the education system doesn't actually educate.

I suspect there may be a discrepancy in what is defined as illiterate. You'll find plenty in America who may struggle to read quickly, but I only know one person who is fully illiterate in all languages (she can spell her name and can read numbers though) but she's more than 90 years old and I'm from a low literacy area.