Gen Z has compelled the country — from Generation X and others across generations — to sit up and listen. Those of us who have Gen Z children may claim we saw a glimpse of their potential before the rest of society did. Yet, if we are honest, we misunderstood them. They began with a demand that should never have required a national agitation in a mature democracy. Examinations must be conducted honestly, and public institutions must accept responsibility for their failures. The years that young people devote to preparing for their futures cannot be treated as expendable.

Many of the youth who participated in these protests have spent years preparing for a single opportunity. Their families often supported them, even when they could scarcely afford to. Many have left villages and small towns, lived in cramped rooms, worked alongside their studies, or carried the expectations of an entire household. The loss incurred by these youngsters when an examination paper is leaked, when a result is arbitrarily delayed, or when a recruitment process is cancelled cannot be talked of only in administrative terms. Months and years of young lives are taken away. For some candidates, an age limit closes another door. For families already living with insecurity, another attempt means another financial sacrifice.

Theirs is a generation that has been made to wait in examination halls, coaching centres and recruitment queues for precarious jobs. Their struggle has come to express something much larger. Nobody, let alone a young person, should have to demonstrate exceptional endurance merely to receive ordinary justice. Young people have been successful in forcing confrontation with a truth difficult to process for our generation: That hard work and perseverance cannot compensate for institutions that fail to act fairly.

I dare say they have changed the political language of protest. What began as........

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