How to keep children busy in activities?

A reader says schools aught to keep children engaged in a meaningful way during the summer. Other topics: cost of living, rent cap, Wi-Fi, dog import, essay writing services

Children must do meaningful activities in the summer, a reader says. Lee Hoagland / The National

Regarding the news report UAE public school days to start and finish earlier (April 27), I have no problem with the changes of hours but what, exactly, will the children do with the rest of the day? How about compulsory cultural and sporting activities for a minimum of three hours?

The alternative will be sleeping, playing video games and wandering the malls. It will, of course, create greater opportunities for the private tuition industry.

Judith Finnemore, Al Ain

A question over increasing costs

I refer to Soaring cost of health insurance a threat to job creation in UAE (April 25). My rent increases annually by the same amount and economists and property experts call this a market adjustment.

But when property owners and corporations have to pay a similar increase to support their workers, this is a threat to the economy and national well-being.

Jeffrey Martin, Dubai

Re-introduce the rent cap

With respect to the news item, Uncertainty among Abu Dhabi shopkeepers as rents rise up to 150 per cent (April 11), I would like to urge the Government to consider re-introducing the rent cap.

The United Kingdom has seen a “killing off” of small local shopping communities mainly due to greedy landlords looking for short-term personal gain.

The UK has suffered due to this.

Kim Hunt, Abu Dhabi

With all these rising costs and no salary increases, it is inevitable that the UAE will be affected in the long run (Abu Dhabi expats sending their families home due to rising cost of living, April 11). It's time to do something about it.

Name withheld by request

Moral question on open Wi-Fi?

Regarding your editorial Beware of stealing Wi-Fi (April 13), I'm sorry to say that if the network has no password protection, then it's "open season" for others to use. Is that morally wrong? That's up to the individual.

Jason Bailey, Abu Dhai

Good to put ban on dog import

I hope huskies are on the list of breeds of dogs banned from being brought to this country (New rules for import of cats and dogs into UAE, April 25).

I think it is extremely cruel to bring them in as a pet and expect them to like an air-conditioned room when all they yearn for is sub-zero temperatures.

Name withheld by request

The importer should be fined so heavily that some of the fine can be applied to repatriate the animals back to their places of origin. Otherwise a lot of innocent dogs are likely to perish because the commercial importers won’t bear the cost of returning them.

Claire Grainger, Dubai

No reason to harm a client

As an employee of an essay writing company, it seems highly unlikely to me that any provider of custom written work would provide a piece that insulted the buyer or their culture (We can't let the cheats beat the education system, April 19).

It’s hard to understand why any company would write a piece of work with the intention of causing problems for the client.

Mark Earnshaw, UK