• US: University opening new integrative medicine centre
• UNESCO lauds South Africa literacy project
• South Africa's R6 billion literacy campaign on track

• Presenting the worldwide achievements of the Global Mother Divine Organization: United Arab Emirates
• Transcendental Meditation Teacher Training Course in Bulgaria creates coherence in collective consciousness
• The rise of Invincible Indonesia

• US: Texas school district to let teachers carry guns
• Harsh school atmosphere may foster student smoking
• US: Schools not properly preparing children for life, AP poll

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Positive Trends
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

US: University opening new integrative medicine centre
16 August 2008 - Many academic health centers offer programmes that include Ayurvedic medicine from India or traditional Chinese treatments. The University of New Mexico also offers traditional treatments from local healers. Native American healers and Hispanic curanderas are invited to work with patients at the clinic. The centre focuses on prevention and keeping the body in balance, staying healthy, exercising, eating healthy, and doing good things in life. (more)

UNESCO lauds South Africa literacy project
14 August 2008 - The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has awarded one of its annual International Literacy Prizes to Operation Upgrade, a South African NGO aimed at promoting social change through literacy. KwaNibela focuses on areas such as healthcare, childcare, family nutrition, and income generation. (more)

South Africa's R6 billion literacy campaign on track
8 August 2008 - South Africa's government is to spend R6.1-billion over the next five years on the Kha Ri Gude (Let us Learn) mass literacy campaign, which it believes will enable an additional 4.7-million South Africans achieve literacy by 2012. The campaign will provide learners with books on both literacy and numeracy, which have been published in all of the eleven official languages, thereby increasing its accessibility. (more)

Trend of returning home taking hold in sub-Saharan countries
8 August 2008 - The trend of Africans returning home to do business is taking tentative hold in several sub-Saharan countries. Investments by returning refugees provide a lifeline to millions in Somaliland, which does not receive any direct foreign aid as it is not recognized internationally. As nations shake off war, adopt better governance, and cash in on a commodities boom, former refugees and other members of the African diaspora are coming back, drawn by patriotism and investment opportunities in a region. (more)

US: Libraries step into the age of iPod
7 August 2008 - For Americans, it may be about time to dig out that old library card. Hoping to draw back readers, libraries have vastly expanded their lists of digital books, music, and movies that can be downloaded by their patrons to a computer or MP3 player -- and it doesn't cost a cent. Once discovered the programmes are often wildly popular. (more)

Multi-million rand libraries open in South Africa
6 August 2008 - Two state-of-the-art, multi-million rand public libraries opened in South Africa last week: the new National Library of South Africa (NLSA) in Pretoria as well as Cape Town's central library. The aim was for the country's libraries to have better staffing, more sensible opening hours, upgraded educational support material and other information resources, facilities promoting children's literature, and more books in South Africa's indigenous languages, the Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan said. (more)

New policy changes to improve South Africa education
6 August 2008 - The Department of Education has introduced five new policies that are expected to yield positive results in the country's education system. They include, lowering of teacher pupil ratios, rearranging of districts into smaller more manageable areas, expansion of Further Education and Training Colleges, and a rollout of internet connectivity to every school in the country by 2013. (more)

New Mexico first state to adopt Navajo textbook
31 July 2008 - State officials say New Mexico is the first to adopt a Navajo textbook for use in the public education system. The book's author, Evangeline Parsons Yazzie, a Navajo professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, said the book will provide a user-friendly way for New Mexico students to learn not only the language but the culture of a tribe that long has tied the two elements. State Education Secretary Veronica Garcia said research has shown that students who master their native language often have an easier time understanding more abstract concepts in the English language. (more)

UK: Schools go green and join carbon trading scheme
16 July 2008 - State schools are to be included under the government's new domestic carbon emissions trading scheme from April 2010, the environment minister said on Wednesday. Britain has also earmarked 110 million pounds for installing renewable energy technology in more than 200 secondary schools undergoing refurbishment over the next three years. (more)

South Africa: Living standards have improved
14 July 2008 - The general living circumstances of South African households have improved since 2002. This was revealed in Statistics South Africa's General Household Survey for 2007. Released last week, the General Household Survey measures education, health, unemployment, housing and access to services. Some of the key findings contained in this year's survey include the considerable progress made in the Eastern Cape with regards to piped or tap water. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Presenting the worldwide achievements of the Global Mother Divine Organization: United Arab Emirates
20 August 2008 - The National Director for the Global Mother Divine Organization in the United Arab Emirates reports about the progress in offering Consciousness-Based Education in her country. (more)

Transcendental Meditation Teacher Training Course in Bulgaria creates coherence in collective consciousness
20 August 2008 - Raja Peter Warburton speaks about the course for the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programme recently completed during the Transcendental Meditation Teacher Training Course, which started in Bulgaria on 1 July. (more)

The rise of Invincible Indonesia
19 August 2008 - Dr Willem Meijles, Raja of Indonesia for the Global Country of World Peace, spoke recently about Consciousness-Based Education programmes in Bali, bringing invincibility to Indonesia. (more)

South Africa: Nature reserve donated to Maharishi Institute
16 August 2008 - Mining magnate Nicky Oppenheimer and his wife Strilli have donated the Ezemvelo Nature Reserve to Taddy Blecher's latest educational endeavour, the Maharishi Institute. Well-known for pioneering CIDA City Campus, South Africa's first free university, Blecher launched the Maharishi Institute in 2007. From its towering premises in the inner city of Johannesburg, the Institute also offers free tertiary education to underprivileged young South Africans, but differs from CIDA in its holistic or Consciousness-Based approach to learning. (more)

Major Brazilian television programme features Dr David Lynch presenting knowledge of enlightenment and world peace
14 August 2008 - Dr David Lynch, touring Brazil to promote Maharishi's programmes, was interviewed on an important primetime television programme, seen by nearly 100 million people. (more)

The Netherlands: Expanding Consciousness-Based Education to create national invincibility
11 August 2008 - Speaking 3 August 2008 on Maharishi Global Family Chat, Dr Paul Gelderloos, National Director of Invincible Netherlands for the Global Country of World Peace, reported on new developments in the expansion of Consciousness-Based Education, which are aimed at inspiring older students in private schools to learn Transcendental Meditation and Yogic Flying, and through them fulfilling Maharishi's vision of creating invincibility for the nation through the schools. (more)

Maharishi University of Management plans ultimate green building
6 August 2008 - Solar panels and wind generators will produce the heat and electricity. Rainwater will be purified for drinking. And sunshine will light most of the building. As planned, the Maharishi University of Management's new sustainable living degree programme building will be greener than any structure of its kind. The Fairfield, Iowa university plans to begin construction in October and finish the building by fall 2009. The single-story building will be designed to be entirely off the grid, with its own electricity, heating, cooling, water, and waste disposal. (more)

Maharishi University of Management celebrates groundbreaking for new Sustainable Living Center
3 August 2008 - Speaking 29 July 2008 on Maharishi Global Family Chat, Dr Peter Swan, Minister of Communication for the Global Country of World Peace, along with Dr Bevan Morris, Prime Minister, presented a video of the Vedic groundbreaking ceremony for the new Sustainable Living Center at Maharishi University of Management (M.U.M.), Fairfield, Iowa, USA. The Center will be built according to Maharishi Sthapatya Veda and will incorporate more sustainable features than any other building in the world. (more)

Sweden: Raja Bruce Plaut aims for nationwide implementation of Consciousness-Based Education
31 July 2008 - Speaking 27 July 2008 on Maharishi Global Family Chat, Raja Bruce Plaut, Raja of Invincible Sweden for the Global Country of World Peace, discussed his intention to implement Consciousness-Based Education throughout the nation. (more)

Self-sustaining green building to be constructed by Maharishi University of Management
29 July 2008 - Maharishi University of Management has announced plans to construct a self-sustaining building on its campus. The structure will feature mechanical systems that allow the building to generate and use its own electricity, treat its own fresh water and wastewater, and conserve enough energy and water to be self-sustainable. (more)

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Flops
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

US: Texas school district to let teachers carry guns
16 August 2008 - A Texas school district will let teachers bring guns to class this fall, the district's superintendent said on Friday, in what experts said appeared to be a first in the United States. The board of the small rural Harrold Independent School District unanimously approved the plan and parents have not objected, said the district's superintendent, David Thweatt. School experts backed Thweatt's claim that Harrold, a system of about 110 students 150 miles northwest of Fort Worth, may be the first to let teachers bring guns to the classroom. (more)

Harsh school atmosphere may foster student smoking
4 July 2008 - Students at high schools that value caring and inclusiveness are significantly less likely to be smokers than their peers at schools placing a heavier emphasis on academics, Scottish researchers report. Students' attitudes toward a school and the quality of student-teacher relationships also appeared to play a role in whether or not students chose to smoke cigarettes, especially for boys. Kids attending schools with worse student-teacher relationships as rated by students, teachers, and the researchers themselves were more likely to be smokers. And when more students said they didn't like their school, the percentage of smokers in the student body also was higher. Both factors had a particularly strong influence on whether or not boys smoke. (more)

US: Schools not properly preparing children for life, AP poll
1 July 2008 - Half of Americans say US schools are doing only a fair to poor job preparing kids for college and the work force. Even more feel that way about the skills kids need to survive as adults, an Associated Press poll finds. Most of those surveyed think the United States is just keeping up or falling behind the rest of the world in education. On some recent international tests, US students have posted flat scores and landed in the middle to bottom of the pack when compared with other nation's children. (more)

US: Government's reading programme hasn't helped - study
5 May 2008 - The $6 billion reading programme at the centre of President Bush's signature education law has failed to make a difference in how well children understand what they read, according to a study by the programme's own champion, the US Department of Education. The programme, Reading First, was designed to help boost student performance in low-income elementary schools, but failed to improve reading comprehension. There was no difference in comprehension scores between students who participated in Reading First and those who did not, the study found. (more)

England: Teachers hold first national strike in 20 years
24 April 2008 - Thousands of schools will be forced to close on Thursday as England's teachers stage their first national strike in 20 years, in a dispute with the government over pay. The Local Government Association said more than one in six schools would be affected, according to a survey of 91 councils. It said 1,896 schools would be shut all day with another 2,006 partially closing. (more)

Iraqi children desperate to learn in ruined schools
23 April 2008 - The education system in Iraq, once the envy of the Middle East, is now in tatters. Violence, a collapse of school infrastructure and the mass displacement of both pupils and teachers have turned many of Iraq's schools into fetid overcrowded ruins, jeopardising the futures of millions of children. At the end of the 1980s, Iraq had virtually eliminated illiteracy. But now, after two decades of economic sanctions and war, one third of Iraqi adults cannot read. (more)

Afghanistan: Half of all children not in school, UN says
21 April 2008 - Half of Afghan children are still not going to school and the biggest group missing out on an education are girls, the United Nations said on Monday. Working children, street children, children in prison and disabled children were among those excluded, but by far the biggest group are girls. The main reasons for girls missing out on school were that many of them either work to support their families or marry young, the UN said. There is also a lack of women teachers. (more)

Low high school graduation rates in US cities
1 April 2008 - Seventeen of the US's 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 per cent, with the lowest graduation rates reported in Detroit, Indianapolis, and Cleveland, according to a report released Tuesday. The report, issued by America's Promise Alliance, found that about half of the students served by public school systems in the nation's largest cities receive diplomas. Students in suburban and rural public high schools were more likely to graduate than their counterparts in urban public high schools, the researchers said. (more)

Chile: Rocks, tear gas in annual youth protests
29 March 2008 - Masked youths threw stones at police who responded by firing tear gas and water cannon in the Chilean capital on Friday at the start of annual protests against the government and the country's free-market system. Dozens of youths, some in school uniforms, threw objects into the Santiago's main street, the Alameda. The protests were aimed at Chile's capitalist-style economic model and the government, which the groups say manipulates the education system to favour the wealthy and exclude the poor. (more)

AP Poll: Students in US colleges overwhelmed by stress
22 March 2008 - US college students are so frazzled they can't sleep, eat, or study. They're even anxious about spring break. Most are just overwhelmed by stress, from everyday worries about grades and relationships, to darker thoughts of suicide, according to a poll of undergraduates from coast to coast. Four in 10 students say they endure stress often. Nearly one in five say they feel it all or most of the time. One in five say they have felt too stressed to do schoolwork or be with friends. Majorities cite classic stress symptoms including trouble concentrating, sleeping, and finding motivation. Most say they have also been agitated, worried, too tired to work. Many cite eating problems and say they have felt lonely, depressed, like they are failures. (more)