The nation is transfixed by the Gen Z protests in Delhi. What started off as anger against the NEET examination question paper leak has snowballed into youth protest over growing white-collar unemployment and unfulfilled expectations.

The Union government assumed responsibility for a nationwide entrance test for admissions to medical colleges on the Supreme Court’s directive in 2016. The paper leak has only provided the spark for mobilisation of youth. The underlying crisis is real and complex.

A Failing Education Pipeline

First, much of our education, both at school and college levels, has collapsed. About 80 per cent of the children who pass out of schools, through no fault of their own, have no real foundation and are products of rote learning and mass copying. Second, poor evaluation systems necessitated competitive entrance tests for highly sought-after STEM courses.

Third, in many cases, the states could not do a credible job of testing, and standards at the state board level vary widely, necessitating a uniform nationwide test for standardisation and fair assessment.

Fourth, while medical colleges have mushroomed, only a select few are capable of imparting a reasonable quality of training to young medicos. Therefore, while 1,36,000 seats are available in medical colleges, there is a scramble for higher ranks to secure admission to some of the better colleges.

Fifth, in order to meet the demand for preparing students for competitive medical entrance tests, many coaching........

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