7 posts tagged “nz”

What's with this Government! I am totally appalled that there has been a $2.3 million funding cut in school therapy services that will affect 23 schools, including the three I went to (Roskill Primary, Intermediate, and Grammar).

These schools need the extra funding, otherwise therapy time for the students involved will be severely restricted. The Education Minister (Ann Tolley) wants the $2.3 million which has been cut, to go into a general pool of $51 million to enable more children with special needs to qualify for a special needs grant (referred to as ORRS - Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Scheme). Ann Tolley wants this, as she says that the new funding model would be a fairer system, as at the moment, some schools receive the extra special funding. The drawback to this change will be the cutting back of therapists from schools like the Roskill schools where they are needed the most.

In my mind, this is a case of back to the future, as when I first attended Mt Roskill Primary School in the mid 80s, there were only three therapists between the three schools! (A Physiotherapist, an Occupational Therapist and a Speech Therapist.) This only changed gradually so by 1989 (my second year at Intermediate) there was a therapy team for each of the three schools. I hope it doesn't get back to that, it will become really hard for the schools involved, as there are more disabled students in each of the three units now, compared to when I was at school.

From where I sit, this is but one area the current government is cutting and reallocating funds to by stealth. Some examples include the funding for community education, the Training Incentive Allowance (anything above certificate level is ineligible now), and worst of all, the $35 million being given to private schools. That's right, PRIVATE SCHOOLS! To me, that stinks.

Hopefully soon the average NZer will wake up to what is happening and start something like what happened over the foreshore and seabed issue. Somehow I don't think so. As long as John Key keeps smiling, everyone will think he is doing a good job.

I wonder what will be cut next?

A version of this ad is currently playing on TV One and I think it is really cool.  I did a search on Youtube today and found this full version, which is even better!

Our Seven's team has triumphed yet again in Hong Kong!  NZ is now looking really unstoppable.  What would be amazing is if the team could perform a clean sweep of the series by winning the remaining 3 tournaments.  To me, this form of Rugby is far more entertaining than the traditional form of the game.  The short format is far more exciting and more skill is involved too.  Go Kiwi!

What a summer NZ is having!  It has not rained substantially for over 3 weeks now.  Hopfully it will last another month.  But this long dry is starting to put pressure on the electricity supplies and the farmers are starting to grumble as well.  Oh well, there will always be those who complain.  I am going to enjoy the weather while it lasts.  

Have had a wild few days here in Auckland (tile even came off my roof)!  We had what is commonly referred to now as a 'weather bomb'.  The northern part of the North Island was the worst hit with severe flooding, slips and power outages.  Some people are still without power even now (a couple of days after the storm).
Some meteorologists are saying that these will become the norm due to global warming.  This is mainly being brought about by countries such as Australia, the US, and China, who seems to be turning a blind eye to the problem.  I read about a week ago that it is building a new power station (mainly coal-fired) every few days.  If they don’t stop this practice soon, the rest of the world will soon have to intervene.  What will the conditions at the next Olympics be like, I wonder…

Saw an ad on the NZ-Libs which required library and HTML skills.  After reading it, I think that the person they get will need to be quite sane because of the workload involved!

The NZ Treasury is just about to migrate 1200 government docs. over to a new content management system.  Some (already in HTML) need to be 'cleaned up', while over 900 need to be converted from Word!

Full details are available here: http://www.bfound.net/list.aspx?CoId=8

I really think this is a massive job, and one that could potentially take longer than they think, depending on the skills of the successful applicant.

Good luck to whoever they get!

Here is a photo of the Waipawa tanker crash from Stuff.
Photo copyright: Kathy Webb/Dominion Post

Waipawa tanker crash