Regarding the story, Pre-university year for Emiratis won't be phased out yet, officials say (July 23), the problem is that students are taught in Arabic at school while the medium of instruction in universities is English. How can those who studied 12 years in Arabic be fluent in English within one year of the foundation programme? My suggestion is this: improve the quality of education in public schools. Teach subjects such as Islamic and social studies in Arabic and other subjects such as mathematics and science in English.
S Joseph Attamimi, Abu Dhabi
How can I keep my car clean if I am outside the country?
The rules here are sometimes confusing (Wash your car or risk having to pay a Dh3,000 fine, July 24). Here is a question: Say one goes on holiday for a month or six weeks, which many people do, how can one keep the car clean? It's against the law to have a car cleaned out on the street.
Tanya Milbourne, Dubai
What is worse? Having the occasional dirty car or having the streets and parking areas littered with rubbish? There seems to be an idea in Abu Dhabi that it is fine to dump your waste on the pavements with impunity, because nobody is going to do anything about it. If people were faced with the same sort of fine that they faced for a dirty car, perhaps their habits would change.
Although I come across more rubbish bins these days, many of them are in the wrong places. I even saw one in the middle of a flower bed the other day.
Jeremy Weeks, Abu Dhabi
My car became dusty a couple of days after I washed it. What do I do? I shall soon go away for a few weeks and when I come back, I’ll find my car covered in dust. It’s a dusty place after all.
Sian Carvill, Dubai
You quoted an official from the municipality saying dirty cars can pose risks to others if the wind picks up the dust and blows it on other cars or on people. Isn't that the same dust that would be on the ground around the car as well? So is the dust on a parked car more hazardous than the dust on the road, ground and sandy dirt?
Michael Grantham, Dubai