The teaching of Transcendental Meditation in schools, which would be implemented by a Natural Law Party government in New Zealand, had been shown in overseas experience to be particularly effective in preventing school dropouts, said the party’s leader, Mr Bryan Lee.

“A 22-week study in the United States of African-American and Hispanic adolescents in an urban secondary school programme in a low-income area found that the dropout rate among Transcendental Meditation programme participants was zero, compared to a 44 per cent rate of dropouts among students not practising the TM programme,” Mr Lee said.

“Other studies have found decreased school dropout rates among economically deprived adolescents. All of this suggests that this programme is badly needed in South Auckland and other areas where truancy and more terminal dropout are major problems.”

Mr Lee said that the Transcendental Meditation programme in schools has also been found to be highly effective in preventing teacher burnout and in enhancing teacher effectiveness.

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