People from India, China out-educating us: Obama
27 Oct 2013 10:33 PM GMT
‘In previous generations, America’s standing economically was so much higher than everybody else’s that we did not have a lot of competition,’ Obama said.
‘Now you have got billions of people from Beijing to Bangalore to Moscow, all of whom are competing with you directly. And they are - those countries are working every day to out-educate and out-compete us,’ Obama said in his remarks to students at the Pathways in Technology Early College High School in Brooklyn on Friday.
‘And every year brings more research showing them pulling ahead, especially in some of the subject matter that this school specialises in - math and science and technology. So we have got a choice to make,’ he said.
He said if the workforce is not educated enough, it will be left behind and find it hard to get a job that pays a living wage.
‘We live in a 21st century global economy. And in a global economy, jobs can go anywhere. Companies, they are looking for the best-educated people, wherever they live, and they will reward them with good jobs and good pay,’ the president said.
‘We can just kind of shrug our shoulders and settle for something less, or we can do what America has always done, which is adapt. We pull together, we up our game, we hustle, we fight back, we work hard, and we win,’ he said.
Obama joked that he had asked students at the Brooklyn school if they could help him help his daughter Malia with her math homework.
‘I don’t know if some of you have experienced this where you get to the point where your children ask you for help and you suddenly realise you have no idea what’s going on,’ he said.
‘Now you have got billions of people from Beijing to Bangalore to Moscow, all of whom are competing with you directly. And they are - those countries are working every day to out-educate and out-compete us,’ Obama said in his remarks to students at the Pathways in Technology Early College High School in Brooklyn on Friday.
‘And every year brings more research showing them pulling ahead, especially in some of the subject matter that this school specialises in - math and science and technology. So we have got a choice to make,’ he said.
He said if the workforce is not educated enough, it will be left behind and find it hard to get a job that pays a living wage.
‘We live in a 21st century global economy. And in a global economy, jobs can go anywhere. Companies, they are looking for the best-educated people, wherever they live, and they will reward them with good jobs and good pay,’ the president said.
‘We can just kind of shrug our shoulders and settle for something less, or we can do what America has always done, which is adapt. We pull together, we up our game, we hustle, we fight back, we work hard, and we win,’ he said.
Obama joked that he had asked students at the Brooklyn school if they could help him help his daughter Malia with her math homework.
‘I don’t know if some of you have experienced this where you get to the point where your children ask you for help and you suddenly realise you have no idea what’s going on,’ he said.
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