• UK: Schools go green and join carbon trading scheme
• South Africa: Living standards have improved
• US: Importance of honeybees to be emphasis at West Virginia conference

• The Maharishi Academy in Japan: Perfectly aligning the physical structure with Natural Law
• Dr Volker Schanbacher, Minister of Education of the Global Country of World Peace, presents Maharishi's unsurpassed achievements in education - Part III
• Dr Volker Schanbacher, Minister of Education of the Global Country of World Peace, presents Maharishi's unsurpassed achievements in education - Part II

• Harsh school atmosphere may foster student smoking
• US: Schools not properly preparing children for life, AP poll
• US: Government's reading programme hasn't helped - study

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Positive Trends
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

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)

US: Importance of honeybees to be emphasis at West Virginia conference
7 July 2008 - The buzz around Marshall University this week will be about the importance of honeybees. About 300 beekeepers were expected to join 12 vendors and dozens more presenters at the Heartland Apiculture Society's annual conference starting Thursday in Huntington. Speakers will educate conference attendees about bees and emphasize their importance. (more)

Armenia invites Turkish President to football match, marking a shift in relations
5 July 2008 - Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan has invited his Turkish counterpart to visit Yerevan for a football match in September, marking a shift in relations between the two states which have no diplomatic ties. Turkey broke diplomatic relations with Armenia in protest against Yerevan's control of Nagorno-Karabakh region over which Armenia fought Turkey's ally Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s. (more)

Chechnya schools to teach math in local language
2 July 2008 - Officials in Chechnya said Tuesday that local schools will start teaching mathematics in Chechen language. The decision apparently will make Chechnya the first area in all Russia to teach a major subject in public school in a language other than Russian. Chechens, conquered by Russia in the nineteenth century, used Arabic letters before switching to the Latin alphabet after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution and to Cyrillic in the 1930s. (more)

Booming China splashes out on science
28 June 2008 - China's booming economy has allowed it to increase spending on research and basic science. On Friday, Peking University opened the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in a Chinese-style building overlooking the Yuan Ming Yuan summer palace. China's spending on research and development hit a record high of 300 billion yuan ($43.73 billion) last year. About one third came from the government, and the remainder from corporations. China has leapfrogged to become the fourth largest economy in the world. (more)

Venezuelan 'System' brings classics to everyone
25 June 2008 - In one of the most widely praised teaching systems in classical music today, a nationwide network of orchestras has made Venezuela a powerhouse for producing talented musicians. It is known as 'El Sistema' -- the National System of Youth and Children's Orchestras of Venezuela -- and it's becoming a model internationally for getting children excited about classical music. (more)

Rich nations copy Venezuela's anti-gang music schools
24 June 2008 - Venezuela's youth orchestras and choirs have helped thousands of children resist thug life in some of South America's most violent slums, and now wealthy countries are lining up to emulate the system. (more)

French Prime Minister launches plan to revive tough suburbs
20 June 2008 - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Friday launched a programme to revive the run-down suburbs that were the scene of weeks of riots in 2005. The programme, outlined in February by President Nicolas Sarkozy, is intended to regenerate the sprawling districts of tower blocks that ring many French cities and which pose one of the government's most intractable problems. A series of measures is planned to get young people into work, to help small businesses, and improve training. (more)

South Africa: Gauteng government completes 20 new schools
18 June 2008 - Twenty brand new and well-equipped schools were handed over to various communities in Gauteng on Tuesday as part of the province's R1.4 billion investment in education for this fiscal year. The schools form part of the Gauteng Department of Education's commitment to build 54 educational facilities in particular areas, identified through the governments Priority Townships Programme. (more)

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

The Maharishi Academy in Japan: Perfectly aligning the physical structure with Natural Law
22 July 2008 - Speaking 12 July 2008 on Maharishi Global Family Chat, Raja John Konhaus, Raja of Invincible Japan for the Global Country of World Peace, reported that the Maharishi Academy in Nasu, Japan, one of the world's leading examples of Vedic Architecture in accord with Natural Law, has recently made refinements in order to align the school even more closely with the principles of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda. (more)

Dr Volker Schanbacher, Minister of Education of the Global Country of World Peace, presents Maharishi's unsurpassed achievements in education - Part III
21 July 2008 - Dr Schanbacher concludes his presentation, and introduces a new organization, the International Foundation of Consciousness-Based Education, founded under Maharishi's guidance. He reviews the vast array of written material which Maharishi contributed to education. (more)

Dr Volker Schanbacher, Minister of Education of the Global Country of World Peace, presents Maharishi's unsurpassed achievements in education - Part II
20 July 2008 - Dr Schanbacher continues his overview of Maharishi's contributions to education, and comments on various courses being developed for worldwide distribution. (more)

Dr Volker Schanbacher, Minister of Education of the Global Country of World Peace, presents Maharishi's unsurpassed achievements in education - Part I
19 July 2008 - On the second day of global celebrations of Guru Purnima in MERU, Netherlands, Dr Volker Schanbacher, Minister of Education of the Global Country of World Peace, enumerated some of Maharishi's countless contributions in the field of education around the world and discussed programmes of Consciousness-Based Education in various countries. (more)

Professional training programme in Consciousness-Based Education to be held in MERU, Netherlands
18 July 2008 - Dr Volker Schanbacher, Minister of Education of the Global Country of World Peace, described a six-day educators' conference and professional training programme in Consciousness-Based Education that is scheduled to begin on 19 July in MERU, the Netherlands. (more)

Spain and Portugal: Rising invincibility though Maharishi's programmes - Part II
18 July 2008 - Dr Antonio Bartolome, Raja (Administrator) of Spain for the Global Country of World Peace, reported developments in Maharishi's programmes in the fields of education, health, and agriculture in Spain and Portugal. (more)

Benefits of Consciousness-Based Education appreciated in UK schools
13 July 2008 - Eleven schools and colleges in Great Britain are planning to implement Consciousness-Based Education into their curricula. (more)

Sustainable Living degree programme in Grenada
13 July 2008 - Speaking 9 July 2008 on Maharishi Global Family Chat, Raja Graham de Freitas, Raja of Invincible Grenada for the Global Country of World Peace, reported progress on the establishment of a three-year college degree programme in Vedic Organic Agriculture and Sustainable Living for students in Grenada. (more)

Executive Vice President of Maharishi University of Management addresses graduates
12 July 2008 - Dr Craig Pearson, Executive Vice President of Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, USA welcomed the esteemed guests and honoured the graduates at the opening of the University's 33rd commencement. (more)

Mission of Maharishi Academy of Total Knowledge High School for Leadership
12 July 2008 - The mission of Maharishi Academy of Total Knowledge High School for Leadership, located in Antrim, New Hampshire, USA, is contained in the name of the school. Based on 35 years of achievements across the globe, the school reports that this mission--to offer Total Knowledge and develop leadership qualities--is realistic and practical. (more)

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Flops
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

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)

US: Drinking prevention needed in grade school - study
11 March 2008 - A significant number of US children are already drinking by middle school, suggesting that prevention needs to start in the elementary grades, researchers conclude in a new report. About 17 per cent of sixth-graders at 61 Chicago schools said they had drunk alcohol in the past year. These children were more likely than their peers to have a range of risk factors for early drinking -- such as delinquent or violent behaviour, a lack of adult supervision out of school, and having friends who drank alcohol. (more)