Tag Archives: environment
Experts call for curbing absenteeism in schools
Experts call for curbing absenteeism in schools Afkar Abdullah / 16 March 2014 Skipping schools has become a ‘chronic behaviour’ among students, and experts are calling for a collaborative effort to curb the practice. Students of middle and high schools loitering in parks and malls; teenagers in school uniforms smoking around buildings and groceries in residential areas during school days. Sounds familiar? According to education experts, skipping classes has become a “chronic behaviour” among many students in government and private schools. Experts agreed that absenteeism among students has become a phenomenon that requires serious collaborative efforts between parents, schools, authorities concerned and the public. Mona Shuhail, Deputy Director of Sharjah Education Zone, said the phenomenon has been increasing every academic year. “This phenomenon will not only affect the student academically, but also the families and the whole society,” she said. “Here at the department, we receive a large number of complaints from the public and authorities such as the police and municipality about students who are seen roaming around outside schools during academic hours. We then contact the schools concerned and inform them about their students and instruct them to take serious steps to stop students from skipping classes.” Why students bunk schools Mostly male students skip classes. There could be many reasons for a student to skip classes, including family instability, negligence on the part of parents and bad company. “But most of the time students skip classes because they just want to, like maybe for the thrill of it,” Shuhail explained. “We brought (some) students here and questioned them…most of them skipped classes because they didn’t do their homework.” Mirgani Osman, a high school student, said he skipped school once because he wanted to eat ice cream with his friends instead of attending the last two classes of Art that he was not interested in. Wahbi Al Hamadi said his friends from different classes used to smoke cigarettes and convinced him to try it. However, after the Sharjah Municipality banned the sale of cigarettes in groceries, Al Hamadi and his friends decided to quit smoking and concentrate on studies. Measures adopted To resolve the problem, Shuhail said the department sent a circular to schools to check for absenteeism each year instead of at the beginning of the academic day. The department also instructed schools to conduct awareness classes about the consequences of skipping school. “The schools were instructed to contact the parents of students who skip school. But the problem is that in many cases, parents don’t answer calls and don’t show up when summoned by the school management.” She called for a collaborative effort from parents, schools, authorities concerned and the public. “The education department is planning to introduce a toll free number for the public to inform the authorities if they find students skipping classes.” Mohammed Al Jasim, spokesperson of the Sharjah Municipality, said the municipality received several complaints about students spending an academic day at parks. “The municipality (however) is not authorised to question students on skipping classes or even stop them from entering the park.” Mustafa Al Mosa, Director of Al Marriffa School, said they used to face this problem and several times the police brought students found loitering in malls to the school. “The practice stopped after we assigned security guards at all gates of the school and deployed a supervisor to search for students out of their classes. This, besides continuous instructions to students about such negative practices, has helped curb the phenomenon,” he said. Sultan Al Khayal, the spokesperson of the Sharjah Police, said the police deployed special patrols to curb the practice. The police also provide awareness lectures about the dangers of negative practices such as smoking, using drugs and skipping schools. When a police patrol spots students skipping schools, they summon the parents and make them sign an undertaking stating that they would not repeat the act. The schools concerned and the education department are also informed. Suggested measures Hibba Mohammed, a social researcher at the Sharjah Education Zone, said they are currently working on a study based on a survey conducted among parents, school management and authorities concerned to come up with an effective solution to curb the practice. Skipping school affects a student’s learning process and exposes them to danger. Two school directors demanded strict punitive action for skipping schools, while Yaqoub Al Hamadi, a social worker at Al Shahba High School, said the students concerned must only be questioned. “Tough punishment would complicate the issue,” he said. afkarali@khaleejtimes.com For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
Malaysia Airlines: What may have happened to MH370
Malaysia Airlines: What may have happened to MH370 AFP / 12 March 2014 We take a look at the possible scenarios being weighed up by industry experts as the world waits for clues as to the fate of the Boeing 777, which has one of the best safety records of any jet. Nearly five days since it disappeared while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, there is still no trace of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Also read: Last words of MH370 revealed | Click here to see complete coverage Conflicting information, false alarms over debris and confusion over the focus of the search have produced more questions than answers. Here we take a look at the possible scenarios being weighed up by industry experts as the world waits for clues as to the fate of the Boeing 777, which has one of the best safety records of any jet. WHY: According to Malaysian authorities the plane was cruising at 35,000 feet (11 kilometres) above sea level when it last made contact and vanished without making a distress call, pointing to the possibility of a sudden catastrophic event. The presence on board of two suspect passengers travelling on stolen passports fuelled fears of a terrorist attack. It was revealed Tuesday they were probably just Iranian migrants, but CIA Director John Brennan said a terror link had not been ruled out. Other possibilities include a strike by a missile or military aircraft. EXPERT VIEW: “I don’t believe it is anything to do with the serviceability or the design of the aircraft,” Neil Hansford, chairman of leading Australian airline consultancy Strategic Aviation Solutions, told AFP. “The way I see it there are three scenarios. There was a bomb on board… the aircraft was hit by a military aircraft or a rogue missile; or…the captain is locked out of the cockpit and the plane is put in a dive,” he said. WHY: The sudden disappearance could also point to a technical problem that could have led to a rapid descent. Reports from the Malaysian authorities that the jet may have made a sharp turn west before it lost contact, possibly pointing to the pilots struggling to rectify a problem, have bolstered this theory. EXPERT VIEW: “To me that (the veer) suggests there was a stall,” says former Inspector General of the US Department of Transportation and aviation lawyer, Mary Schiavo. “That doesn’t mean you lose your engines. It means that you’re losing your air flow over your wings, sufficient speed to keep the plane in the air…it would lose altitude really dramatically.” She compared the possible scenario to the fate of Air France 447 — which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 after its speed sensors malfunctioned — in an interview with Australia’s ABC television. If the plane did crash, a combination of technical difficulties and pilot error would be a likely scenario, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific aerospace consultant Ravi Madavaram said. “There is no single factor which generally leads to an airplane crash, but a combination of technical glitches and pilot decisions. Each of these glitches and decisions taken independently are harmless and often happen. It is the combination of these factors that lead to a catastrophe.” WHY: The lack of wreckage or black box transmission has led to speculation that the plane may have disintegrated mid-air. EXPERT VIEW: While structural disintegration has been behind some previous aircraft disappearances, new planes use “better materials, technology and maintenance schedules”, Madavaram says. “This last happened to China Airlines flight 611, during its cruise at 35,000 feet in 2002. Flight 611 was a Boeing 747 aircraft and the reason for that crash was faulty repair.” He added that the technology on a Boeing 747 was 20 years older than on a 777. WHY: The absence of debris around the intended flight path, the possibility that the flight turned back, and conflicting reports over whether the plane was spotted by Malaysian military way off course have added to speculation of a hijack, which has still not been ruled out by investigators. Malaysia Airlines says that all its aircraft are equipped with the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) system — which puts out information about location and airspeed — but has so far declined to release whatever data it got from flight MH370. EXPERT VIEW: The reports of a “turn back” raised yet more questions, says Scott Hamilton, managing director of US-based aviation consultancy Leeham Co. “If it were near the Vietnam coast, why turn back when there probably would have been a closer airport in the event of an emergency?” he wrote on his company website. The larger question was whether the turn was intentional “under the command of the pilots (or hijackers),” or due to other causes such as engine problems or an explosion. But Frost & Sullivan’s Madavaram believes several factors rule out a hijack, including a lack of a credible claim of responsibility and the difficulty in evading radars and witnesses. WHY: While rare, there have been cases in the past of pilots crashing planes to take their own lives. According to the US Federal Aviation Administration, pilot suicides account for less than 0.5 percent of all fatal general aviation accidents. EXPERT VIEW: A suicide bid “is possible and if that’s the case there might not be a lot of debris because the plane would have come down in relatively structural integrity,” said Terence Fan, aviation expert at Singapore Management University. “The airplane is not meant to float and if the airplane sinks in the water, water will go inside because the door seals are not meant to seal water.” For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
Michael Schumacher shows ‘small signs’ of improvement
Michael Schumacher shows ‘small signs’ of improvement IANS / 12 March 2014 The 45-year-old was put in induced coma in a Grenoble hospital in France after he severely injured his head in a skiing accident. Michael Schumacher has showed improvement in his ‘wake-up phase’ and his family is confident that the seven-time Formula 1 world champion will recover from a life-threatening head injury he suffered while skiing at a French resort in December, the racing legend’s manager Sabine Kehm informed on Wednesday. ‘We are and remain confident that Michael will pull through and will wake up. There sometimes are small, encouraging signs, but we also know that this is the time to be very patient,’ said Kehm. ‘Michael has suffered severe injuries. It is very hard to comprehend for all of us that Michael, who had overcome a lot of precarious situations in the past, has been hurt so terribly in such a banal situation. ‘It was clear from the start that this will be a long and hard fight for Michael. We are taking this fight on together with the team of doctors, whom we fully trust. The length of the process is not the important part for us,’ she stressed. Kehm said Schumacher’s family was grateful to his fans around the world for their continued prayers and support, requesting privacy at the same time. ‘It is heart-warming to see how much sympathy his family is shown and I can say that the family is extremely grateful for it. However, it should not be forgotten that Michael’s family is dealing with an extremely intimate and fragile situation. And I would like to remind all of us that Michael has always actively kept his family out of the public eye and consequently protected their private lives. ‘We try to channel all the energies we have toward Michael and we firmly believe that this will help him. And we believe that he will also win this fight,’ she added. The 45-year-old was put in induced coma in a Grenoble hospital in France after he severely injured his head in a skiing accident at the French resort of Meribel on December 29. Doctors initiated the wake up phase on January 30. For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
