Thousands of young people came to Jantar Mantar to demand accountability on structural failures in education, starting with the NEET paper leak. The police lathi-charged them, and fired tear gas and pellet guns at them. For such an all-powerful government, what was so difficult about fixing a paper leak? And yet, they chose the same route they had previously deployed on farmers, on women, and on women wrestlers – the route of tyrannical brute force.

Despite this brutality, the youth on the streets responded with remarkable restraint and sharp satire. That is precisely why none of the government’s tactics worked this time. The country’s Gen Z  has forced the Union education minister to resign, they have set the process of accountability in motion.

Yet for the Bharatiya Janata Party government, education and employment, two issues that matter most to the youth remain out of syllabus. What exactly is in their syllabus? After all these years in power, what have they actually done with education? Where is the real accountability? Will NEET and other exams papers stop leaking now? Will India’s youth be skilled enough to get reasonable jobs? Also, is India’s economy generating enough jobs for Gen Z? 

Today, public trust, educational quality, employment, and India’s future all hang in the balance. At this crucial juncture, we need to ask two questions: how do we rebuild our entire educational framework? And how do we secure the future of Gen Z Indians, who number 50 crore by some accounts?

Education and employment are two sides of the same coin. Until recently, every Indian, rich or poor, believed that a good education could secure their family’s future. But over the last few years, the middle class has realised that this promise has slipped away from them. How did that happen? How are our long-established institutions losing their prestige? Why are our exam systems, our schools, our colleges, and the overall quality of education declining instead of improving? According to the World Population Review’s 2026 ranking, India’s Public Education Score is just 4.3 out of a resounding 100. Denmark scored a perfect 100, Sweden scored 99.9, and the UK scored 96.8. The World Population Review has officially placed India among third-world countries. Their analysis shows that while India’s population – especially its youth – is growing rapidly, our quality-of-life indicators like education, healthcare, and equity remain far behind.

According to the QS World University Rankings 2027, not a single Indian university features among Asia’s top 10. IIT Delhi ranks 30th in Asia. Only three Indian universities make it to the world’s top 200: IIT Delhi at 118th, IIT Bombay at 134th, and IIT Madras at 170th. No wonder the education minister says nothing about these rankings and we hardly get a........

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