U.S. facing challenge from Indians kids: Obama
By siliconindia   |   Saturday, 13 June 2009, 00:53 IST   |    22 Comments
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U.S. facing challenge from Indians kids: Obama
Chicago: Apparently rattled by the competitive edge that Indian and Chinese students possess over U.S. students, President Barack Obama has emphasized the need for improving the country's education system. Obama said that Indian and Chinese kids spend more time in school and less time playing "video games", indirectly hinting at the U.S. culture where the country's kids are not as obsessed with their studies as their Indian counterparts are. "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 neighboring Wisconsin. Obama reminded the audience that this fact should be put against the truth that America once produced the highest number of school and college graduates, PhDs, engineers and scientists. The country 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," he said. At present, the U.S. is in the "middle" and has settled into "mediocrity" among wealthy, advanced, industrialized 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.