The article says "88 percent of Indians can’t speak English (let alone read it)"

I'm not a native English speaker, but that sentence implies that reading English is more difficult than speaking it. But in my experience, most people who learn English as a second language learn to read first, especially if they specifically learn it to use the Internet.

For native English speakers: Is my interpretation of that phrase correct?

For non-native English speakers: Did you learn to read English first or did you start by learning to speak it? Does it vary on first language, literacy level, motivation?