When Lydia Benitez-Brown, executive producer of "Batibot," bewailed the financial problems faced by the program (PDI, Jan. 26), she ignored the fundamental costs-and-benefits question: whatever benefits we may have gained from the show, could we have achieved them at less cost via a different vehicle?

The production costs alone amount to P6 billion a year. If there are two children in each of the 230,000 households "Batibot" allegedly reaches, Benitez-Brown is spending a lavish P13,043.48 per child per year!

It would be cheaper to hire a full-time tutor for each child at P1,000 a month! And we’re not even talking of air time!

To justify the continued subsidy of "Batibot," Benitez-Brown should demonstrate that a child learns more from "Batibot" then from a teacher tutoring the child on a full-time one-to-one basis.

Karla V. Castillo