Indian students beat U.S. in terms of hard work

Friday, 29 January 2010, 22:56 IST   |    13 Comments
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Indian students beat U.S. in terms of hard work
Washington: Indian and Chinese children have been out-competing their American counterparts by their sheer hard work even though they are not smarter than the latter, a top Obama administration official has said, reports Business Standard. "We are simply being out-competed by children in India and China. They are not smarter than our children. They are just working harder," Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the MSNBC television in an interview yesterday. "I have argued very clearly, and so has the President, that our school day is too short, our school week is too short, our school year is too short." Indian and Chinese students go at least 30 to 40 extra days to schools annually compared to American children. "It is very well documented that certain children get to a certain point in June, thanks to the hard work of their teachers, and because nothing is going on during the summer, they come back to us in September further behind than where they left. That is heartbreaking. We have to stop that," Duncan said, while advocating more time and enrichment as the answer to the solution. The Education Secretary said one has to raise the bar for all students. Noting that talent matters tremendously in education, he also said that good teachers and principals make a huge difference in students' lives.