1) Games.
1.1.) Children, teenagers and young people are playing games.
1.2.) They are enjoying competition with others while playing.
1.3.) They are trying to get from the game everything they are not getting from the real life.
2) Education and life.
2.1.) Children, teenagers and young people are living and studying (they are visiting educational institutions, at least, sometimes).
2.2.) They are competing in life and much less in education.
2.3.) They are competing in life because it is natural, fashionable and engaging.
2.4) Ukrainian educational system is trying to prevent direct (and usually indirect) competition in the groups. It is not natural for the youngsters. They don’t get satisfaction from the education. They don’t study.
Dmitry Antonyuk, Zhitomir 2011
Dmitry Antonyuk. Personal site. 
Robert R. Chaldini says that competition often comes from deficit.
In Games usually only one can win and get the prize.
And is there a deficit in education?
1) Games are often not with the “zero sum”.
2) There is a deficit of engaging.
3) There are a lot of options:
– compete with the other groups;
– compete with the certain level;
– compete against negative result,
etc.