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Otago Daily Times
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Learning support $640m lauded
One of Otago schools' top representatives is weighing the new education budget against the pressures of frontline teaching. Kaitangata Primary School principal Anneta Payne, chairwoman of the South Otago Principals' Association said she was pleased the government had earmarked $640 million for learning support as it was the biggest challenge facing teachers. "The number of neurodiverse students and students experiencing trauma or severe anxiety resulting in behavioural distractions in classes is steadily growing," she said. "Looking at learning support announced [in the Budget] I am certain there will be a lot of happy teachers and school leaders. There is a lot of additional support which will benefit children ... We would like to see funding for every classroom to have a learning assistant to support learners with special needs." But a shortage of relief teachers, the pace of change in curriculum and mixed messages from the Ministry of Education were hurting the sector's morale and ability to deliver, she said. "[The ministry] delivers one message to us ... patting us all on the back for the wonderful job schools are doing. Then we see media releases . . . saying the education sector has been missing the mark, achievement is poor ... That hurts." "Two new curriculum documents [were] finalised in term 4 last year, with schools expected to implement these in 2025 ... [with] another five curriculum documents to be in draft next year for implementation in 2027. "In general, we are quite supportive of the new curriculum documents as they provide more detailed expectations ... It's just the whirlwind implementation that is proving a challenge — the new year 0-8 maths curriculum document alone is 101 pages long." She pointed out nothing was removed from teachers' existing workloads to make room for new expectations and responsibilities added by successive governments. South Otago High School principal Mike Wright was chairman of the Otago Secondary School Principals' Association until the end of last year. His take was in line with Mrs Payne's and he also raised the issue of overall teacher shortage. "Recruitment of teachers into schools is also challenging ... particularly for the sciences, maths and technology," he said. "Recruitment from overseas is not necessarily the answer ... You may bring a teacher into New Zealand who then needs to understand the assessment practices and the culture of New Zealand schools while also adapting to the unique perspective of matauranga Māori." He said New Zealand needed to train its own teachers to meet a growing need created by retirement and professionals changing careers, roll growth with population increase and students staying in school longer.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Electric surge throws sparks and damage in wake in Springfield Township
SPRINGFIELD TWP., Ohio (WKBN) – It's not something you see every day — an electric surge traveling along power lines in Springfield Township during Monday evening's lightning storm. One of them was for what neighbors thought were explosions at a First Energy transformer substation on Unity Road. 'We initially got called for a tree on a wire. And then immediately following that, there were probably about 10 more calls within an hour,' said Springfield Township Fire Chief Mike Wright. 'And whenever they got there, they found that there were multiple breakers had dropped.' Several viewers contacted WKBN 27 First News, saying that lightning strikes and power surges damaged appliances and electronics in their homes. Even the fire department fell victim as the speaker system inside the station malfunctioned. 'Whenever they went out on that first call, our truck — the battery charger on it — the truck was filling up with smoke,' Wright said. A First Energy spokesperson said roughly 2,500 customers were affected by the storm, but most were restored fairly quickly. As for ruined appliances, the utility does not typically reimburse customers for items damaged during weather-related outages, encouraging neighbors to contact their homeowners or renters' insurance carriers to see if their policies will cover the losses. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to
CBC
07-03-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Military planners map out restructuring the Canadian Army, says top soldier
The Canadian Army is about to embark on a wholesale restructuring in the face of growing demands for troops and equipment both overseas and at home, says the country's top soldier. A military modernization team is currently studying the problem against the backdrop of a shortage of as many as 5,000 soldiers, Lt.-Gen. Mike Wright told CBC News in a recent interview at the NATO training centre in Adazi, Latvia. "The army we have now is not the army that we need for the future," Wright said when asked if he was satisfied with the equipping of the troops on the Western military's alliance's deterrence mission in Eastern Europe. He made his remarks against a backdrop of threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to annex Canada through economic force. Several senior Canadian commanders have recently faced questions about how long the country could hold out if relations with Washington deteriorated further and the United States chose a military option. Wright wouldn't comment, other than to say ties with the American military have remained unchanged and strong despite the political rhetoric. "I'm not even going to imagine the unimaginable," he said. The army is facing a number of challenges — both overseas and domestically — and Canada has struggled to field equipment to its force in Latvia, including modern anti-tank weapons, air-defence systems and counter-drone technology. It currently has 47 capital projects on the go. The absence of such equipment has been a major gap for soldiers, whose job it is to defend Latvia, a NATO member, should Russia turn its military attention to the Baltic region. Some of the equipment — deemed critical in light of the way the war between Russia and Ukraine has unfolded — is still making its way to the brigade more than a year after being declared an urgent operational requirement. Other existing equipment, such as the Leopard 2A4 tanks, are facing a well-documented shortage of spare parts. Last fall, satellite images analyzed by Estonian media noted that several bases on the Russian side of the border, which had been emptied of troops and equipment following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, are now showing signs of life and vehicles, including tanks and long-range artillery. "Am I content with how we are prepared here? The answer is yes, but we actually need to get to the point of what we have here in Latvia — we're able to feel that for the entire Canadian Army," Wright said. "So I'm really focused on that." The Canadian Army currently has three major regular force infantry regiments, a series of tank and artillery units as well as 185 reserve units located in 86 cities across the country. The modernization team, Wright said, is looking at everything and consulting with allies on how they have overhauled their armies to face modern threats that have emerged in the Ukraine war, including the use of explosive-laden drones. The Liberal government's defence policy promises, among other things, to buy the army surface-to-surface ballistic missiles and modern, perhaps rocket-based artillery — capabilities Canadian soldiers have not used. Defence Minister Bill Blair also recently announced that the military would acquire what's known as loitering munitions, the kinds of drones made infamous online and seen destroying Russian and Ukrainian armoured vehicles. "I really want to look at what we need to do to put the real focus on war fighting, on the lethality within the army and be able to provide the effects to NATO or to anywhere else that we need to be," Wright said. "We're going to look at everything in terms of how we are structured, from the very top of the army headquarters right down to the unit level." Wright didn't want to presuppose what the overhaul will look like in the end, but he said he didn't want to cut units. The calls to reorganize the army have also been coming from outside of the military. With soldiers increasingly being deployed on domestic operations, a House of Commons committee studied whether deploying soldiers to fight wildfires and other disasters is an appropriate use of resources. Both deploying to Latvia and responding to domestic emergencies has stretched the army increasingly thin. In some cases, Wright said, the absence of equipment, personnel and structures has forced Canada into the uncomfortable position of not meeting a goal set out by NATO — namely the ability to deploy a divisional headquarters into the field on short notice. "There are capabilities which NATO has assigned to us which we currently don't have the ability to fulfil," he said. "We do have division headquarters in Canada, but those divisions are — frankly — administrative and regional based." Despite Wright's confidence in the equipping of the force in Latvia, there are still holes. Out of the three major, urgent equipment projects — originally ordered in late 2023 — two are still awaiting delivery. A $32.2-million modern anti-tank weapons system, known as Portable Anti "X" Missile (PAXM), which were supposed to arrive last summer, has not arrived and defence officials say it is still undergoing evaluation "and delivery can't be confirmed until testing is finished." A new air-defence system is scheduled to arrive this spring, said Col. Cédric Aspirault, the Canadian brigade commander in Latvia The counter-drone system is operational, he added. Last fall, the army in Latvia also received a number of light tactical vehicles — a small troop carrier with offroad capabilities — and portable medium-range radar systems. The army is still, however, struggling with a shortage of spare parts for the 15 Leopard 2A4 tanks attached to the brigade. "We are working towards finding your solutions," said Aspirault, who added that the spares, which are manufactured in Europe, are required to be sent to Canada before they are re-routed to the brigade in Latvia. "However, the army now is well aware of the problem, and we are looking at options to streamline that process and bring the parts directly here."
