ILLETERACY and overpopulation happen to be the two major problems which, in turn, are behind nearly all of our other problems, apart from corruption, of course.

It was with considerable concern that I read the news report ‘Students fear closure of 1,300 SEF schools in Sindh’ (Feb 27), about protest by students, teachers, as well as by operators of primary schools that are part of the Integrated Education Learning Programme (IELP), an initiative of the Sindh Education Foundation (SEF).

There are fears of closure of some 1,300 schools, including 70 in Karachi, set up in 23 districts of Sindh, due to funds promised many times, yet not delivered by the government to school managements.

This basically puts at risk the future of 8,000 teachers, as well as of 250,000 students of these schools, who basically happen to be child labourers and children from poor families. They cannot afford to pay high fees charged by other private schools. So, for these children, the closure of schools will mean deprivation of education.

This comes as an even greater shock when we learn that yet another bailout package of Rs100 billion has been approved for what has been described, and rightly so, as the ever-bleeding Pakistan International Airlines whose staff-to-aeroplane ratio remains considerably higher than that of an airlines of comparable size, and which continues to suffer from endemic maladministration.

I hope that the government would do something for these children and their educators.

S.R.H. HASHMI     Karachi