The real scam behind NEET we need to talk about

Our systems are woefully inadequate to address the aspirations of our youth. Worse, we have foisted our failure onto them by linking this inadequate supply with the dubious categorisation of "merit"

Published in the Indian Express

ANI

While the alleged corruption in the recent NEET exam has rightly garnered attention, the real scam lies elsewhere. There is no question that NEET and other competitive exams for higher education and recruitment exams for coveted jobs must be conducted with absolute integrity. However, as our public discourse gets mired in the minutiae of investigations, petitions, individual culpability, and political rhetoric, the most important aspect of the issue is lost: a staggering 24 lakh students appeared to qualify for a mere 1 lakh seats (55000 government seats).

The real scam lies in the fact that 75 years after independence, when India claims to be the fifth largest economy, our systems are woefully inadequate to address the aspirations of our youth. Worse, we have foisted our failure onto them by linking this inadequate supply with the dubious categorization of "merit," where all but a minuscule minority is squeezed out. This is not just a problem with medical education – the same issue repeats across sectors, from education to employment. The crux of the matter is the lack of adequate available opportunities, but we sidestep it in two ways: first, by making it about a lack of merit in our youth, and then by periodically zooming into corruption cases involving officials and young people.

It would be disingenuous to label this merely a legacy problem. What's more concerning is the palpable lack of seriousness in addressing the urgent need to productively engage our youth, both economically and democratically. This is evident from the fact that instead of tackling the urgent problem of inadequate opportunities, we have instead ratcheted up aspiration. Since our systems cannot distribute success and social status more widely, we have superimposed the stupendous success of a few onto national pride and instead of acknowledging the singularity of their success, set them up as examples for our youth.

Simultaneously, we have propagated narrow definitions of success, limiting it to a combination of outsized money and power, while our education system and job markets have failed to provide sufficient avenues for students to legitimately fulfill these lofty aspirations. To counter this, we have set up "merit" as the criterion and celebrate the few who can make the cut or have bucked the system in ways which are not available widely. However, for any society, restricting success and social status to only a minuscule minority is a recipe for fomenting discontent and alienation – a problem exacerbated in India due to the large youth population struggling even to secure basic formal employment.

The result is a vast number of disheartened youth who, despite working hard, are denied opportunities due to systemic bottlenecks, breeding a deep sense of injustice, failure, and hopelessness. When some buckle under this pressure, as seen in the spate of suicide cases in Kota and elsewhere, we offer anodyne platitudes about how one exam doesn't matter. But the platitudes ring hollow because the available pathways for upward mobility and success are so limited.

The scale of the problem we face regarding the mismatch between aspirations and reality for India's youth is massive. Yet, our current efforts and solutions are woefully inadequate, lacking a bi-partisan, top-down national-level approach that is direly needed. We celebrate little islands of excellence, mere tiny drops in an ocean of demand, with no clear path to making such opportunities widely available. We cannot lose sight of the bigger picture – the urgent need to expand quality educational and employment opportunities.

As a nation, we need to demonstrate a visible sense of responsibility and empathy towards our youth. This calls for a multi-pronged approach. First, responsible sections of the political class must rise above partisan divides to genuinely think through the scale of the problem and the institutional and societal response capable of meeting this challenge. At the very least this will require a massive infusion of public funds to expand quality education infrastructure and opportunities. Second, we must foster a sense of social solidarity and shed the dismissive and exploitative attitudes towards welfare and the working class. Third, India's elite and successful individuals need to go beyond the self-satisfaction that their success is itself their contribution to the nation and contribute more towards expanding opportunities for our youth. Only such a decisive, sustained mission helmed by the highest leadership can instil hope in our youth and demonstrate that their aspirations are being taken seriously. Merely canceling exams and prosecuting a few individuals is to sidestep our own accountability and can only exacerbate youth disillusionment further.

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