US losing ground to India, China in science, technology: Obama

WASHINGTON: As he grapples with the problem of a sluggish economy and rising unemployment, President Barack Obama is worried his country is fast losing ground to India and China in the fields of Science and Mathematics, expertise in which raises employability.

Obama has time and again exhorted American students to focus hard on competing with their counterparts in India and China. On his bus tour to 'connect' to rural America, the President once again hammered in his point that the country needs to raise the stakes in Science and technology.

Wrapping up his three-day bus tour to rural America with a town hall meeting in the southern Atkinson county, Obama said his administration was focussing hard on orienting children in lower schools towards these vital fields.

"One of the things I'm worried about and we're trying to put a lot of emphasis on in the Department of Education is, can we do more to encourage math, science, engineering, technology learning... if you are a skilled engineer, if you are a skilled computer scientist, if you've got strong math and technical skills, you are going to be very employable in today's economy," Obama said.

"That has to start even before young people get to college. So we're trying to institute a whole -- what's called a STEM programme -- science, technology, engineering and math -- in the lower schools so that kids start getting oriented towards those fields," he said.

Obama said these were the areas where America traditionally had a comparative advantage, but "we're losing ground to China and India" and places where those kids are just focused on those subjects.

Obama's bus tour to rural areas has come at a time when he is battling his lowest popularity ratings, and has failed to lift up the slowing economy.

Knowledge of foreign languages too, he said, was a valuable asset that lends an extra edge to students in getting jobs in other countries.

"I will tell you, though, just in case there are any French teachers here or foreign language teachers, having a foreign language, that's important, too.

"That makes you so much more employable because if you go to a company and they're doing business in France or Belgium or Switzerland or Europe somewhere, and they find out you've got that language skill, that's going to be important as well," he said.