President Obama praises South Korea for paying teachers

The US President was speaking at a High School in Oklahoma as he launcheda new programme aimed at giving low-incomehouseholds broadband internet.

At the project launch at Durant High School he said: “Obviously, as President you travel around a lot, and you go to countries like South Korea where a higher percentage of the population has high-speed broadband- and, by the way, they pay their teachers the way they pay their doctors, and they consider education to be at the highest rung of the professions.

It is not the first time that Obama has praised the nation's education system. In 2010, the politician also praised the length of the academic year in South Korea, compared to the US. He said: “We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day.