No chance of change in Iran

A reader says the new president, Hassan Rowhani, will not change key policies. Other topics: school hours, bad driving and telegrams.

A reader says the new Iranian president, Hassan Rowhani, will not change key polcies. Abedin Taherkenareh / EPA

Shorter hours not the right answer to education woes

I was delighted to read some good common sense in Ayesha Almazroui's opinion article, Shortened school days would not help children learn (June 17).

I work with schools as a consultant, and have worked in the education field in other capacities.

Since arriving in the UAE, I have despaired at how little time children actually spend learning in schools.

So, I did a little study of my own two years ago. What I found was teachers complaining about it being too hot to teach anytime after April 1. They said that many parents were also complaining and removing their offspring from schools.

The UAE has always been a desert country, and therefore it gets hot and dry. But there is now something called air conditioning, as the article point out.

Perhaps schools should open at 6.30am and finish earlier.

Or perhaps the issue is about parents who keep their children up too late at night, so they arrive at school with their eyes barely open and their brains some hours behind?

Judith Finnemore, Al Ain

The gift that will keep on giving

It was heartwarming to see the lovely photo on the front page of The National under the headline UAE's gift of education for poor and orphans (June 16).

It shows some young Pakistani boys beaming with happiness after receiving some basic stationery as part of an excellent initiative by the President of the UAE, Sheikh Khalifa.

Without a doubt, the greatest gift you can give someone in life is an education.

Steffi Bow, Dubai

Warnings won't cure bad driving

I disagree with the conclusion made in Real-time information will cut accidents (June 1).

It's not fog or rain that causes accidents, it's selfish, irresponsible people who are driving at outrageous speeds and zigzagging in and out of traffic in whatever weather conditions.

One doesn't need a degree in meteorology to know when it's foggy and to drive carefully.

Put the responsibility where it belongs: blame the drivers, not the conditions.

Chris Murray, Abu Dhabi

New president, same old Iran

As Majid Rafizadeh's article, Iran elects a new president but policies will not change (June 17) points out, the Islamic Republic of Iran is facing an unprecedented amount of pressure from the international community and regional countries.

It seems that if the Iranian leaders were to act on two issues, they would allow their people to breathe more easily and be liberated from these pressures.

If Iran stops its nuclear programme and stops supporting the murderous regime of Bashar Al Assad in Syria, nobody will apply sanctions on Iran.

But the question is whether the new president, Hassan Rowhani, will do this.

Mr Rowhani cannot change these policies, because former Iranian presidents have not been able to do so.

Why are there such high expectation of this new president?

S Horsandi, Dubai

Fond farewell for telegram service

The last telegram - once popularly known as "taar" in Hindi - will be delivered in India on July 15 (End of an era. Stop., June 17).

The telecommunications company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has decided to discontinue the service, because it has lost its relevance with the invention of modern communications technology.

As an Indian expatriate living in the UAE, I remember the days when I used to walk all the way to the old post office building in Airport Road.

Standing in the queue, we would write out messages and give them to the staff, who would relay them as telegrams.

The local postman in India would hand-deliver the telegrams within one or two days. Greetings, wishes and condolences were all transmitted in a similar manner. Banking transactions were also made faster by this means.

That all died away when fax machines came in, and now there are email and SMS facilities.

First typewriters, now telegrams are gone. This marks the end of an era of communication.

Ramesh Menon, Abu Dhabi