Buckle up Indians and Chinese are coming: Obama to Americans

Yoshita Singh

Chicago, Jun 12 (PTI) US President Barack Obama on Friday
emphasised the need for improving the country's education
system as its students have to compete with Indian and Chinese
kids, who spend more time in school and less time playing
"video games".

Obama said while at one time America produced the highest
number of school and college graduates, Ph.Ds, engineers and
scientists, it has fallen behind now and is no longer "head
and shoulders above other countries when it (comes) to
education".

"We have got to pick up the pace because the world has
gotten competitive. The Chinese, the Indians are coming at us
and they are coming at us hard, and they are hungry and they
are really buckling down," Obama said at a town hall meeting
in neighbouring Wisconsin.

"Their (Indian and Chinese) kids watch a lot less TV than
our kids do, play a lot fewer video games, they are in the
classroom a lot longer," he said.

At present, the US is in the "middle" and has settled
into "mediocrity" among wealthy, advanced, industrialised
countries. There is need to improve and step up its game as
its kids are falling behind when it comes to science and math,
Obama said.

The President said while the entire American education
system is not plagued with problems, his government would
focus on professional development for teachers, recruit and
train more of them, besides asking parents to put more
emphasis on education with their kids.

The US government has set aside money for improving
curriculum, teacher training, recruitment in its stimulus
spending, he said.

Obama has said on more than one occasion that Americans
have to raise their standards of education as they have to
compete with the students of India and China.

"We cannot afford our kids to be mediocre at a time when
they are competing against kids in China and India who are
actually in school about a month longer than our kids," he had
said in a March town hall meeting in California.

The main focus of Obama's address was the need to reform
the country's health care system so as to bring down costs and
provide cover to over 50 million uninsured Americans.

Taking his plan of government-sponsored health insurance
that would compete with private insurers to the people, Obama
said if the private insurance companies have to compete with a
public option, "it will keep them honest and it will help keep
their prices down".

Obama wants the health care legislation on his desk by
October. PTI YAS
SKT
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