UAE: School reopening in September
I was happy to see a bold report by Gulf News on the topic of parents in Abu Dhabi worrying about children returning to school (“Coronavirus: Parents in Abu Dhabi worry about children’s return to school”, Gulf News, August 02). While most other news agencies have only reported one side of school opening, I'm glad the other side has also been taken into consideration by Gulf News. It is the truth, a lot of parents are concerned, and when such reports are put out through such world-class news agencies, that's when the authorities can also think like a parent and discern what’s best.
Although my child goes to a school in Dubai and testing is not mandatory, there are other things that we are still worried about. I am a frontline worker, born and raised in Dubai, and so this country is home to me. We have been reading different articles that children will be able to get back to school by September.
I won't blame my five-year-old child to understand the gravity of the situation and behave accordingly, especially to keep her mask on all the time for about four to five hours, to sanitise after touching every shared action, etc. I understand that the school needs to run to pay their staff, but for the previous term that my child was at home, we have paid the fees in full, and I'm sure the school has benefitted more as they don’t have to pay utility bills or other such bills.
After reopening, every school has agreed to deep cleaning and sanitising daily after each action. Still, I hope they have done their homework on how much extra this is going to cost the school when compared to home/e-learning and hopefully not charge it indirectly on the students. Also, to add a plastic barrier on each desk is an extra cost. The buses are going to run with half capacity and expected to do more rounds in a day to manage the counts, cost added again.
Yes, the coronavirus cases are coming down in the country, but the virus is still around.
As I mentioned initially, this country is home to me, and so I want it to get back to normal soon. I'm sure the authorities are doing their best to curb the spread of the pandemic, and will make the right decisions to keep this virus from spreading further.
From Mr Shibu Mathew
UAE
Demand for a CBI probe into Sushant Singh Rajput’s death
It has been nearly two months since young and promising actor Sushant Singh Rajput died under suspicious circumstances (“Mumbai police deny February warning by Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s father”, Gulf News, August 03). There has been speculation on whether it was suicide or something else and what led him to this action.
Sushant Singh's father and other family members are grieving at the loss of their son who made Bihar proud, and they wanted the truth to come out. Even in Bihar there is significant outrage and demand for investigation from an outside agency.
Mumbai police investigating this case is known for its competence and has a record of solving several critical murder cases.
There is a demand for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the case. CBI is a highly trustworthy agency. I believe the truth will come to light sooner.
From Mr Ramesh G Jethwani
India
Launch of the UAE Hope Probe mission
I was very much happy to read in Gulf News that the UAE launched Hope Probe at 1.58 am on July 20, 2020, a satellite which will orbit the planet Mars and get information about its atmosphere, which will help humanity understand the planet’s climatic condition ( “In photos: UAE Hope Probe launch as it happened”, Gulf News, July 20). I congratulate all the Emiratis on the launch of Hope Probe because it is the first space mission by any Arab country. This interplanetary mission will inspire other countries of the world to pursue space science.
From Mr Faris Ahmad
UAE
