This Sunday, on June 21, lakhs of our children will once again troop into the exam halls and retake the NEET for absolutely no fault of theirs. Before a single question paper is opened, there is something that needs to be said plainly: We, the adults — teachers, parents, and the institutions meant to protect them, let them down. On this retest, we owe them not just a ban on the Telegram app, but also an honest reckoning.

Accountability isn’t a word reserved for newspaper editorials or press conferences. It must be lived, and it must be distributed honestly across everyone who failed these students. Paper-setters and middlemen who sold integrity for money bear the gravest guilt. The testing authorities allowed cracks in the system through which unscrupulous elements sneaked in. But let us not pretend the rot stopped there.

The truth that few of us will admit to is this. It was some of us, parents, who were willing customers of this corruption, paying for shortcuts we told ourselves our children........

© Indian Express