Be patient in traffic
Thank you for report. This report is very important to all of us, drivers, parents and people (‘Motorists ignoring stop signs on school buses to be penalised,’ Gulf News, April 22). We must care for our young generation and be more polite towards them. We should be patient towards traffic situation. Unfortunately, most of the people ignore the situation and drive rash when school buses block traffic. We have to understand that it could be our children in the same buses. I request everyone to look around, be more careful and try to respect each other.
From Mr Aleksandra
Dubai
Website comment
Don’t block traffic
School busses too should be fined for blocking traffic. I noticed bus drivers put stop signs and wait for children, causing a traffic jam. When they wait for children they must park on a side not block the road.
From Mr Lawrence
Dubai
Website comment
Unclear
Even this news article is not clear about the rule. Does the traffic have to stop until the child has crossed safety or until the stop sign is removed? Sometimes the drivers start driving before the children have crossed safely.
From Mr Tony
Dubai
Website comment
Drive safe
The move made by the Road and Transport Authority is welcome. I think that the school buses are equipped with speedometers, but I have noticed them driving rashly and changing lanes without indicating. I hope that drivers of school buses are well qualified and realise their responsibilities. If the authorities see such ill practices by school buses they should be severely penalized for the breach of road rules and safety measures.
From Mr Ashok Fernandes
Dubai
Website comment
Learning Arabic
I studied Arabic up until grade eight, yet I do not know how to speak it fluently. My daughter goes to a school in Sharjah and she started studying the language in KG2. I think that the biggest issue is that schools are attempting to build top floors without building a solid base. In the first term, which lasts for three months, my daughter’s class was required to learn all alphabets and their derivatives. They also learnt about fatha (vowel ‘a’), kasra (vowel ‘e’) and damma (vowel ‘u’). However, in the second term, they were directly introduced to three-letter words, without being shown how to connect them. They were asked to study these, along with sentences, prepositions, verbs and verb forms without being taught each one separately. Upon asking the school why they were being taught this way, I was told that the educational authorities had very high standards and the schools have to rush through the syllabus. My daughter struggled through all this and is in grade three now. Upon facing some more tribulations, I asked the teacher why no grammar was being taught. I was told that this would be handled in grade four. No matter how innovative one is, one will never be able to teach a language without building a basic foundation. One may wonder how it is possible then that a language such as French is taught within four years and students are successfully able to speak the language and train to use it as a second language. I know Arabic to a certain extent so I could teach my daughter, albeit with lots of difficulty getting through to her. But I wonder what parents with no Arabic background would be going through. The only resort would be tuitions.
From Ms Kauser Huq
UAE
Great need
I am a grade 11 student in a private school. My brother and I have been learning Arabic from grade three but we do not know how to even tell people our names in Arabic. It is because the style in which we are learning now does not help us communicate with others. I believe that the main purpose of a language is to communicate with others. My friends and I are studying Arabic just for the sake of passing our exams. Most of my friends in non-Arabic speaking schools dislike learning it as a second language as it is hard for them to understand so they just memorise the curriculum, which stays in our minds only for a short duration. The main reason is that it is hard for the teacher to explain the subject in English. Also, we should have Spoken Arabic lessons added to the syllabus.
From Ms Newel Mathew
UAE
Irresponsible behaviour
These days most residential buildings are equipped with a garbage chute for the tenants’ convenience. However, many people have the bad habit of misusing these facilities, thoughtfully provided by the buildings’ management. The actual purpose of a chute is to provide tenants with an easy way to throw away their garbage without having to go all the way down to where the trash cans are stored. Sadly, some tenants engage in irresponsible behaviour, creating problems for others by leaving their rubbish inside the garbage room instead of depositing it in the chute. This is an unacceptable and highly unhygienic practice that must to be rectified. On many occasions, I have also seen that the road near our building is littered with all kinds of rubbish. Earlier, I used to think this was mainly because people go about littering their surroundings. In reality, it turns out it is because a majority of tenants do not tie up their garbage bags at the time of disposal, causing the trash to fall out of the bins and settle on the roads and in front of the building’s main entrance.
This garbage not only emits a foul smell, making it impossible to breathe, but is also an eye-sore. These issues could be sorted out within minutes, if people would act in a responsible manner. It barely takes a few seconds to throw the trash down the chute, rather than leaving it on the floor for someone else to clean up. The same with disposing of garbage bags, it is always recommended people take the time to tie them to avoid having them open and scatter garbage all around. A little effort on the tenants’ side and proper disposal of waste materials is all that is required for a cleaner environment.
From Ms Fatima Suhail
Sharjah
Editor’s note: Do you have an opinion about a news report we published? Share your views on it at readers@gulfnews.com or post a comment on our Facebook page
