Dr I John Mohan Razu
Professor of Social Ethics
The system of education has been critiqued on various grounds by some of the renowned educationists of our country. Pedagogic process, assignments, and answers to be written for the questions asked are dependent on one thing repeating whatever teachers taught and, in the examination, repeat whatever has been taught. Our education system is divided into silos and the dumping process takes place at the subject-wise levels. In the entire process, students view subjects as separate ones having nothing to do with each other.
There are absolutely no integration and connectivity. Creative and critical questioning are absent because the system assumes that the teachers know everything and reservoirs of knowledge. In diverse ways dumping the knowledge become the pre-occupation of our system of education. Those who repeat in the examinations are given distinction and A+ and thus considered as toppers and others as ‘good for nothing’. Based on the grades and those who secure high grades are the only way that a student can be evaluated.
Somehow in recent times, for lakhs of students NEET is being considered to be most competitive examination in the country. Lakhs of students have dreams of successfully completing NEET to cherishing their dreams. Towards this end, having spent years in the classrooms they spent in the coaching classes writing mock tests and many others just for one thing to ‘excel’ in NEET. It is an intense competitive examination where those children who have the money go to some known coaching centres and write. Those from the rural India despite securing excellent grades hardly make it except a tiny percentage.
The reasons very many. One could perhaps be cited as it came out openly. May 3rd, 2026 was supposed to be the end of long wait for the applicants, received the rude shock that the NEET examination was cancelled. As soon as they heard of it which triggered a wave of anxiety, anger, and emotional collapse across the country. The aspirants wanted to complete at the earliest so that they could move to a next stage all of a sudden found themselves to have been pushed to a new situation to sit for the retest on the June 21, 26. Educational psychologists say that many show signs of panic, burnout, insomnia, and severe emotional distress.
Postponement has shattered the confidence of the aspirants for the medicine. The mental pressure is the unseen cost of the paper leak. This is the crux of the problem. What made the government to cancel or postpone the NEET? One PDF, one sleepless night and one man who refused to cheat students. A teacher from Rajasthan blew the whistle on NEET leak. His conscience would allow him to sleep and kept pricking. Blowing the whistle is not that easy as others think. In this case, more than 22 lakh students across India whose future lies on the successful completion, spent time, energy, and everything chasing ranks, cut-offs, chasing ranks had to blow the whistle. Postponement of the NEET due to leak has shattered the students.
On very many occasions India’s educational has failed. There have been lots of grey areas that need to fixed. The custodians of education all the time offers cosmetic treatment such as New Education Policy (NEP), but hardly changes the very core philosophy of education. Unless and until there is a drastic and radical change in the entire educational system those with money would go abroad for further studies because Indian system of education is like banking or parrot-type of education having repetitive mode.
The craze for NEET and after the results those who failed to get-in end their lives. Students across castes and classes especially the poor and the vulnerable go to the extent of committing suicide. These are the first generation who have their dreams of becoming doctors wanting to serve the society, but their dreams end right there and so their lives become useless. This is what our education does. It does not offer choices and variation. The scope is very limited and one-sided. In such dire straits those who fail to reach their goal gets totally frustrated. In India life hardly matters, but for the parents and others it matters. Life is precious that should be given the honour and value. Let the custodians of educations come with other viable and pragmatic appraisal system by keep aside NEET—the diabolic system of examining students.
