Is Obama Exaggerating Competitive Threat From India?

[RiazHaq]

In a recent speech President Obama exaggerated the competitive threat from India and China. He said,"when global firms were asked a few years back where they planned on building new research and development facilities, nearly 80 per cent said either China or India – because those countries are focused on math and science, and they're focused on training and educating their workforce".

Based on the recent PISA test results, Obama may be right about threat from China. But India? I don't agree.

Here's why:

Not only did India rank near bottom among 74 nations, the average Indian child taking part in PISA2009+ scored 40 to 50 points behind the worst students in the economic superstars. Even the best performers in Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh - the top 5 percent who India will need in science and technology to complete globally - were almost 100 points behind the average child in Singapore and 83 points behind the average Korean - and a staggering 250 points behind the best in the best.

The average child in HP & TN is right at the level of the worst OECD or American students (only 1.5 or 7.5 points ahead). Contrary to President Obama's oft-expressed concerns about American students ability to compete with their Indian counterparts, the average 15-year-old Indian placed in an American school would be among the weakest students in the classroom. Even the best TN/HP students are 24 points behind the average American 15 year old.

Haq's Musings: PISA & TIMSS Confirm Low Quality of Indian Education

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

I don't know about India.

But the American Government definitely does over-exaggerate the competitive threat from China.

They even put scary adverts on their TV about how China will rule the world in the near future. Check out the "Chinese professor" advertisement... high level scaremongering BS.

 

[IndoCarib]

Here we go again. The same PISA scores ! Old wine in a new bottle. Whatever made you write this article, Mr. Haq ? Jealous that Obama elevated India to be threat to US ?

Get this straight for the last time. We are not a threat to anybody, any nation. Let alone US

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Here we go again. The same PISA scores ! Old wine in a new bottle. Whatever made you write this article, Mr. Haq ? Jealous that Obama elevated India to be threat to US ?

Get this straight for the last time. We are not a threat to anybody, any nation. Let alone US

What is to be jealous about?

 

[RiazHaq]

Here's a piece by Thane Richard, a Brown University student who did a semester abroad at St. Stephens College in India:

“Wait, what?! You are studying here for three years just so you can go do it again for four more years?” I could not grasp the logic of this. What changed my understanding was when I started taking classes at St. Stephen’s College. Except for one, they were horrible.
This was not an isolated incident — all my fellow exchange students concurred that the academics were a joke compared to what we were used to back home. In one economic history class the professor would enter the room, take attendance, open his notebook, and begin reading. He would read his notes word for word while we, his students, copied these notes word for word until the bell sounded. Next class he would find the spot where the bell had interrupted him, like a storyteller reading to children and trying to recall where he had last put down the story. He would even pause slightly at the end of a long sentence to give us enough time to finish writing before he moved on. And this was only when he decided to show up — many times I arrived on campus to find class abruptly cancelled. Classmates exchanged cell phone numbers and created phone trees just to circulate word of a cancelled class. I got a text almost daily about one of my classes. My foreigner peers had many similar experiences.
---------------
To pause for a moment, here is the problem with me talking about this topic: right now many Indians reading this are starting to feel defensive. “Nationalist” is a term I have heard as a self-description as they defend Mother India from the bigoted, criticising foreigner. They focus on me rather than the problem. I have had people unfriend me on Facebook and walk out on meals because I politely expressed an opinion on politics or history that went against the publicly consented “Indian opinion.” For a nation that prides itself on the 17 languages printed on its currency, I am greeted with remarkable intolerance. Even after living in India for close to three years, attending an Indian college, working for an Indian company, founding an Indian company, paying taxes in India, and making India my home, I am not Indian enough to speak my mind. But in a nation that rivals all others in the breadth of its human diversity, who is Indian enough? Because if loyalty and a feeling of patriotism were the barometers for “Indianness,” rather than skin colour or a government document, then I would easily be a dual U.S.-Indian citizen. This Indian defensiveness is false nationalism. It is not a stance that cares about India, it is one that cares about what others think of India, which is not nationalism. That is narcissism.
My voice should be drowned out by the millions around me who are disappointed with how they have been short-changed by the Indian government — their government. Education is one of the most poignant examples of this and serves as great dinner conversation amongst the elite:
“The Indian education system is lost in the past and failing India.” Everyone at the table nods, mumbles their concurrence, and cites the most recent Economist article or Pricewaterhouse Cooper study on the matter in order to masquerade as informed....

An Indian education? - The Hindu

 

[A1Kaid]

Yes, Obama certainly exaggerates competition from India, he does this for votes to scare people into thinking US will fall behind competitors if people don't vote for him. He's been doing that since 2008 when he first ran for office, it's apart of his platform.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

BBC News - How China is winning the school race

Eyebrows were raised when the results of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's international maths, science and reading tests - the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests - were published.

Shanghai, taking part for the first time, came top in all three subjects.

OECD test scores.

 

[kawaraj]

India's just another scapegoat that can take some blames from @merican angry losers. we see quite a few on this forum.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

For Pakistan it has lot to be jealous about.We got independence at same time but then ever increasing gap between our GDPs is main cause of their envy,literacy rate, internal strife,stable Democracy,homogeneous population,power generation,space capabilitles, defence capabilities and list goes on and on.........

I was responding to this sentence:

Here we go again. The same PISA scores ! Old wine in a new bottle. Whatever made you write this article, Mr. Haq ? Jealous that Obama elevated India to be threat to US ?

Get this straight for the last time. We are not a threat to anybody, any nation. Let alone US

I meant why would anyone be jealous that the US is portraying them as a threat.

 

[ILLUMINATO]

lol!

Jealous of India with its world's largest population of poor, hungry and illiterates defecating in the open?

South Asia Investor Review: India is Home to World's Largest Population of Poor, Hungry and Illiterates

but still in peace without the scare of getting blown into bits at any moment.

 

[Rocky25]

What is to be jealous about?

You still don't understand Pakistani mentality!!!

 

[Rocky25]

but still in peace without the scare of getting blown into bits at any moment.

They can only speak about Toilets.... They don't understand that many here consider that as a luxury.... Does defecating in the open makes India a less easier for the Pakistanis to get Kashmir? I don't think so!

 

[ILLUMINATO]

You still don't understand Pakistani mentality!!!

I was infracted by nuclearpak for stating reality which is quoted by CD in post no 9. on the pretext of trolling but they don't act with such urgency on Pakistani members when they do same even after reporting.

 

[Arya Desa]

Obama may be overstating the Indian and Chinese threat but he clearly is understating the pakistani threat.

 

[Rocky25]

I was infracted by nuclearpak for stating reality which is quoted by CD in post no 9. on the pretext of trolling but they don't act with such urgency on Pakistani members when they do same even after reporting.

But nuclearpak will be Okay when Pakistanis speak about Indian Toilets..... As though it is NOT trolling... I wonder why can't they ban ALL Indians and they can troll all the way they like? Speaking about Indian poverty, Indian Toilets, Indian poor as though they are living in Swizz!