Education value easily overlooked

With reference to the letter "Basic education for children" from Mr. Jose Joacir Dos Santos (April 1), we would like to express our sympathy for Mr. Dos Santos, who is one of the few still genuinely concerned about the fate of education in developing nations all over the world. We support your plight, Mr. Dos Santos, quite a few of our ideas are similar to what you expressed in your letter.

We believe that education is the very basis of the growth and strength of a nation. But we are sad that it is so frequently overlooked and so easily neglected. We are angry that it has been thoroughly abandoned by a culture that sees and accepts things only by their "commercial" value. Mr. Dos Santos' experience could not have been a more perfect example of this.

We call on government and corporate leaders to wake up and realize how the degrading quality of education is very much a threat to the not-so-distant future of our nation, that a tiny dent in profit is no sacrifice considering what is at stake.

Mr. Dos Santos, thank you for your efforts. We regret that the people of our nation failed to meet you half-way.

HENRY ISMAIL

Bandung