• US: Pennsylvania State University to lead DOE Energy Innovation Hub
• US: Colleges award prizes, tuition for summer reading
• US leads university rankings as China progresses

• Calm, peaceful atmosphere replaces fighting at school in Israel
• Discipline problems, violence recede in Middle East school where students practise Transcendental Meditation
• Israel: Students and teachers praise benefits of Transcendental Meditation

• Murder rates affect IQ tests scores: study
• Afghan schoolgirls fall ill in suspected gas attack
• Senegal's Koranic 'scholars' face beatings - report

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Positive Trends
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

US: Pennsylvania State University to lead DOE Energy Innovation Hub
28 August 2010 - A team led by Pennsylvania State University will receive up to $122 million over the next five years from the US Department of Energy to establish an Energy Innovation Hub focused on developing technologies to make buildings more energy efficient. The Energy Innovation Hub will bring together leading researchers from academia, two US National Laboratories, and the private sector in an effort to develop energy-efficient building designs that will save energy, cut pollution, and position the United States as a leader in this industry. (more)

US: Colleges award prizes, tuition for summer reading
20 August 2010 - Some universities now offer essay contests in the fall that carry prizes from campus bookstore gift certificates to dinner with best-selling authors to a semester of free tuition. 'It's a way of trying to value, even privilege, the project in the eyes of the students,' said Frank Wcislo, the dean who oversees the programme at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Henry Kreuzman, dean for curriculum and academic engagement at The College of Wooster in Ohio, said the optional contest is one element in giving students a richer experience with the text. 'We never really saw it as a reward for reading the book,' Kreuzman said. 'We saw it as an integrated intellectual exercise.' (more)

US leads university rankings as China progresses
18 August 2010 - Harvard retains the crown as top university for the eighth year in an annual ranking of the world's universities which is dominated by the United States but shows China's performance improving. The 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), published since 2003 by the Centre for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said the United States dominates the list with eight in the top 10 and 54 in the top 100. The ranking, initially set up to find the global standing of Chinese universities, showed Asian universities were advancing up the list with 106 from the Asia Pacific region making the top 500 and Chinese universities performing better. Universities from Middle East countries also made progress in the 2010 list. (more)

US: Green Mountain College tops Sierra Club list
17 August 2010 - Green Mountain College tops this year's list of Sierra magazine's 'Coolest Schools' -- a roster of the 20 colleges and universities that the publication scored the highest in combatting climate change and teaching students about sustainability. To compile the list, Sierra sent a questionnaire to 900 schools; 162 responded to survey that covered 10 categories -- energy supply, efficiency, food, academics, purchasing, transportation, waste management, administration, financial investments, and other initiatives. (more)

Somalia: Getting an education against all odds in Kismayo
13 August 2010 - Five years after a local charity opened a university to offer Kismayo city's youth an alternative to militia life and emigration, the first degrees have been awarded. Kismayo University has 200 students, most of whom are from Middle and Lower Juba regions where, for many years, secondary school was the highest level of learning available. (more)

South Africa maths centre to spawn Africa's Einsteins
11 August 2010 - The Cape Town-based African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), a postgraduate academic institution, is to be the model for three maths training centres on the continent. The first centre is to be launched in Senegal in September 2011, with others in Ghana and Ethiopia following soon afterwards. The three centres are expected to serve as a nurturing ground for more world-class African mathematicians. According to cosmologist Neil Turok, founder of AIMS South Africa, the goal is to build 15 such centres across Africa by 2020. The project, dubbed NextEinstein, is Turok's brainchild and has already led to the opening of a second AIMS centre at the African University of Science and Technology in Abuja, Nigeria. The Canadian government has pledged R140-million in financial support for the project. The money will go towards the construction of AIMS centres over the next four years. (more)

India develops world's cheapest 'laptop' at $35
23 July 2010 - India has come up with the world's cheapest 'laptop', a touch-screen computing device that costs $35. India's Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal this week unveiled the low-cost computing device that is designed for students, saying his department had started talks with global manufacturers to start mass production. (more)

US: Education inventors get boost under new programmes
23 July 2010 - A movement is under way to make it easier for entrepreneurs to navigate the lucrative and sometimes-tricky education market and introduce new technology and products into classrooms. An educator at the University of Pennsylvania wants to create one of the nation's only business incubators dedicated to education entrepreneurs. The US Department of Education is also getting into the act with a $650 million fund to boost education innovation. (more)

Music can boost language skills
21 July 2010 - Learning to play a musical instrument can change your brain, with a US review finding music training can lead to improved speech and foreign language skills. A data-driven review by Northwestern University (in the US) has pulled together research that links musical training to learning that spills over into skills including language, speech, memory, attention, and even vocal emotion. Children who are musically trained are better at observing pitch changes in speech and have a better vocabulary and reading ability than children who did not receive music training. (more)

Good news from Canada 15 - 19 July 2010
19 July 2010 - Foreigners have purchased C$53.9 billion of Canadian securities so far this year, compared with C$52.1 billion in the first five months of last year. In other business news, investment in non-residential building construction reached C$10.1-billion in the second quarter of 2010, up 1.2 per cent from the previous quarter. It was the first quarterly increase since the recession hit in the fourth quarter of 2008. Also, the Ontario government is giving the University of Windsor more than C$350,000 to support aboriginal students. For details on these and other Canada news stories: (more)

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

For more news and knowledge in the field of education visit: Excellence in Action

Calm, peaceful atmosphere replaces fighting at school in Israel
2 September 2010 - A calm, peaceful atmosphere has replaced fighting and other problems that once drove teachers, students, and parents away from a high school in Israel. The comments of administrators and teachers illustrate how the Transcendental Meditation Programme is creating a stress-free school. (more)

Discipline problems, violence recede in Middle East school where students practise Transcendental Meditation
1 September 2010 - At a high school in Israel that has implemented the Transcendental Meditation Programme, teachers, parents, and the students themselves are noticing marked improvements in their behaviour. Prior to introducing Consciousness-Based Education, the school struggled with discipline problems and violence. 'Before meditation I was an angry person,' one student said. 'I had a lot of problems. Now I almost don't have any problems . . . . My relationships are better, and I am much calmer now.' (more)

Israel: Students and teachers praise benefits of Transcendental Meditation
31 August 2010 - Students, teachers, and administrators at a high school in Israel say that the introduction of the Transcendental Meditation Programme has resulted in tremendous positive change in the school. 'You can really feel the quiet,' said a school official, commenting that the students are more focused and achieving more. 'I have become a lot calmer,' a student said. (more)

Consciousness-Based Education expanding in India
28 August 2010 - The number of schools and universities in India offering Consciousness-Based Education is increasing rapidly. Over 100,000 primary and secondary school students are enjoying the benefits of Consciousness-Based Education, under the leadership of Dr Girish Chandra Varma. Dr Varma is Director-General of the Maharishi Global Capital of World Peace at the centre of India and Chairman of the Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools Group--overseeing the largest primary and secondary educational organization in India, with 151 schools in 17 states. All students practise the Transcendental Meditation Technique and many also practise Yogic Flying. (more)

Bangalore, India: New admissions office opens for Computer Professionals Program at Maharishi University of Management, USA
27 August 2010 - The Computer Science Department at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, USA, has opened a new Admissions Office in Bangalore, India. The office is managed by an MUM graduate, and is solely for students applying for the Computer Professionals Program (Master of Science in Computer Science) at the University in Fairfield. The programme is having good success placing curricular practical training students in US IT companies, indicating that the recession in the IT industry is coming to an end, says Dr Craig Shaw, director of recruiting for the Computer Professionals Program. The average starting salary of recently placed students is over $60,000 (US) per year. (more)

Nepal: International conference to introduce Consciousness-Based Education - 22 September
26 August 2010 - On 22 September an international conference on Consciousness-Based Education will be held in Nepal. Featured speakers include Dr Girish Varma, National Director of the Global Country of World Peace for India, and Chairman of 160 Maharishi Schools in that nation; Dr Michael Dillbeck, an expert in scientific research on Consciousness-Based Education and the Raja (Administrator) of Invincible France for the Global Country; and Dr Susie Dillbeck, President of the International Foundation of Consciousness-Based Education. (more)

Maharishi School in Uganda expanding
20 August 2010 - Consciousness-Based Education is flourishing in Uganda, where a Maharishi secondary school continues to expand. A recent Consciousness-Based Education seminar created great interest in this ideal educational system. (more)

Education solutions: A cost-effective, successful, common sense programme
17 August 2010 - Long-time US educator Dr George Rutherford elaborates on how success for a school is built-in with the 'Quiet Time with Transcendental Meditation' Programme. Students find that their concentration and attention increase--and school administrators and teachers find that discipline issues decrease--with regular practice of the simple, natural Transcendental Meditation Programme. (more)

Sports team, counseling staff at US college thrive on Transcendental Meditation
10 August 2010 - The women's squash team at Trinity College in Connecticut, USA, has excelled this year, and attributes its success to all the team members practising Transcendental Meditation, which they recently learned. Staff of the college's counseling centre, as well as other students, also learned the technique. (more)

Spain, Portugal: More people learning Transcendental Meditation, Consciousness-Based Education projects underway
7 August 2010 - Spain and Portugal are moving closer to national invincibility, with more people learning the Transcendental Meditation Programme, including in schools. (more)

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Flops
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Murder rates affect IQ tests scores: study
14 June 2010 - A murder in the neighbourhood can significantly knock down a child's score on an IQ test, even if the child did not directly witness the killing or know the victim, US researchers reported on Monday. The findings have implications both for crime control efforts and for the heavy reliance on standardized tests, said New York University sociology professor Patrick Sharkey, who conducted the study. They can also explain about half the achievement gap between blacks and whites on such tests, he reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The effects wear off after a week to nine days, researchers found. But in areas with a lot of crime, this does not provide much relief. (more)

Afghan schoolgirls fall ill in suspected gas attack
25 April 2010 - Scores of Afghan schoolgirls were knocked unconscious or made ill over the weekend by suspected poison gas attacks on their schools and authorities are blaming insurgents who oppose educating girls. Provincial police chief Abdul Razzaq Yaqubi said about 48 girls and several teachers had become ill suddenly and many collapsed after smelling poison gas at a school in the northern city of Kunduz on Saturday. Humayum Khamosh, a doctor at a Kunduz hospital, said another 13 girls fell ill after an attack at another school on Sunday. The Taliban banned all education for girls when they ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001, and schooling for females remains a controversial issue in much of Afghanistan. Similar attacks have been carried out in other parts of Afghanistan over the past few years, including areas where there is little Taliban presence. (more)

Senegal's Koranic 'scholars' face beatings - report
15 April 2010 - Schoolchildren enrolled the nation's traditional Koranic schools, or daaras, are being forced by teachers to panhandle on pain of severe beatings, according to an investigation by global advocacy group Human Rights Watch released on Thursday. The findings are troublesome in a mainly Muslim nation of 12 million where Koranic schools have existed for centuries, placing Senegal on a list of countries with severe forced child begging such as Pakistan, India, and Albania. The majority of Senegal's urban daaras have embraced forced begging, Wells said, with some of the religious leaders -- known as marabouts -- making as much as $100,000 per year on the proceeds while cutting back hours in the classroom. 'This has created a legacy of street children in Senegal,' said an expert. 'Because of the severe abuse they suffer at the hands of the marabout, they run away in huge numbers.' (more)

Rampant cheating hurts China's research ambitions
11 April 2010 - Ghostwriting, plagiarizing, or faking results is so rampant in Chinese academia that some experts worry it could hinder China's efforts to become a leader in science. State-run media recently exulted over reports that China publishes more papers in international journals than any except the US. But not all the research stands up to scrutiny. In December, a British journal retracted 70 papers from a Chinese university, all by the same two lead scientists, saying the work had been fabricated. 'Academic fraud, misconduct, and ethical violations are very common in China,' said professor Rao Yi, dean of the life sciences school at Peking University in the capital. 'It is a big problem.' Critics blame weak penalties and a system that bases faculty promotions and bonuses on number, rather than quality, of papers published. (more)

US: Kansas City, Missouri wants to close half its public schools
7 March 2010 - Kansas City was held up as a national example of bold thinking when it tried to integrate its schools by making them better than the suburban districts where many kids were moving. The result was one school with an Olympic-sized swimming pool and another with recording studios. Now it's on the brink of bankruptcy and considering another bold move: closing nearly half its schools to stay afloat. Buffeted for years by declining enrollment, political squabbling and a revolving door of leadership, the district's fortunes are so bleak that Superintendent John Covington has said diplomas given to many graduates 'aren't worth the paper they're printed on'. (more)

Educational DVDs don't help toddlers' language
5 March 2010 - Putting children in front of educational DVDs does not help boost their language skills, according to a US study that focused on one product, the Baby Wordsworth from the Walt Disney Company's Baby Einstein series. The researchers also asked parents about their childrens' television viewing before entering the study. The earlier a child started watching Baby Einstein DVDs, it turned out, the smaller his or her vocabulary was. Researchers speculated that parents who place their kids in front of the screen could be trying to remedy slow language development, or they could be using the DVDs as baby sitters, cutting back on social stimulation. Some experts have even suggested that baby videos might be harmful by impeding social and cognitive learning. (more)

Study: US schools face shortfalls after stimulus ends
28 December 2009 - Using federal stimulus money to avoid layoffs at schools is going to create a shortfall even more difficult for states and schools to contend with when that money runs out, according to a first-of-its-kind study. New York alone will see a $2 billion shortfall after stimulus money ends in 2011-12, and that could drive up some of the nation's highest local property taxes another 8 per cent, according to the analysis by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The post-stimulus era is often called 'the cliff,' and schools fear massive teacher layoffs may occour. And the future may be even darker: depressed housing values -- which lag about three years behind a recession -- will hurt the ability of schools and local governments to raise tax revenue, making the crisis last much longer. (more)

India: Schools caught in middle of rebel fight
10 December 2009 - Indian children are increasingly caught in the middle of fighting between the government and communist rebels in impoverished rural areas, with at least 42 schools attacked in the past year, a human rights group said Wednesday. The rebels, who say they are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting for more than four decades in several states in central India. A spate of recent attacks has raised concern they are lashing out ahead of a planned government offensive aimed at routing them from their forest strongholds. While the rebels frequently target police and government workers, schools are also often destroyed by rebels or occupied by police, jeopardizing the education of tens of thousands of India's most disadvantaged and marginalized children, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report. (more)

Co-ed dorms linked to more drinking, promiscuity
26 November 2009 - In findings that may confirm parents' worries, a new study suggests that co-ed college dorms are encouraging kids to drink heavily and be more promiscuous. In a survey of more than 500 students at five US universities, researchers found that students living in co-ed housing were 2.5 times more likely than those in all-male or all-female dorms to admit to binge-drinking on a weekly basis. They were also more than twice as likely to say they'd had at least three partners in the past year. Moreover, researchers discovered this was not a matter of 'selection' -- that is, kids who are more prone to drinking and partying being more likely to request co-ed housing. Researchers speculated that co-ed dorms may implicitly set different 'social norms' than single-sex housing does. Ninety per cent of university housing in the US is now co-ed. (more)

UK: Three in 10 teachers suffer false misconduct claims
26 October 2009 - Nearly three in 10 teachers have faced false allegations of misconduct from pupils, according to a poll published on Monday. The survey for the Association of Teachers and Lecturers found that 28 per cent of staff had faced allegations that later proved to be groundless. Mary Bousted, the union's general secretary, said false claims blight teachers' career, private lives, and health. The union, which has 160,000 members, said staff are at risk of malicious claims by a handful of pupils that are then copied by other children. A separate poll for the same union in April found that nearly half of staff had considered leaving the profession because of pupils' increasingly bad behaviour. (more)