NEET Scandal and the Broken Education System

Why on earth does the government treat education as nothing more than a stepchild? To put it plainly, it is too neglected! A glaring example of this is the latest NEET paper leak. It shows us clearly that our exam halls are no longer about “merit” but about money, muscle, and manipulation. Twenty-two lakh students sweated for months, only to discover that a “guess paper” was doing the rounds on WhatsApp. Is it not disgusting? Has this not robbed them of the future they worked so hard for?

Of course, small fry like Manish Yadav, Rakesh Mandavriya, P. V. Kulkarni, Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, Manisha Sanjay Havaldar and other were arrested from Rajasthan, Haryana, Maharashtra. Many alleged that they're just foot soldiers! Behind them stands a network of coaching mafias and corrupt officials who strike a kind of deals. The government, in its usual style, cancelled the exam and ordered a CBI probe. That probe I believe is nothing more than a lullaby. It may calm the public while the guilty sit back in cosy air-conditioned offices.

See Also: 3 May 2026 NEET UG Exam Cancelled Following Alleged ‘Guess Paper’ Leak; CBI Probe Ordered

The tragedy does not end with cancelled exams. Imagine for a moment millions of young students burning midnight oil for years, only to be told that the exam is called off! Look at the consequences. In Goa, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, four young NEET aspirants committed suicide. Think of the parents who spent all their savings and struggle all along for the future of their sons and daughters. Do these extreme steps by youths not speak of despair, hopelessness, and exhaustion? Imagine for a moment millions of young students burning midnight oil for years, only to be told that the exam is cancelled!

Please remember, this is not just a one-off case. In the past two years, we have seen NEET leaks in 2024 and 2026, UGC NET cancelled after a cyber breach, UP Police recruitment papers floating on social media, and Telangana’s TSPSC staff selling exam papers like vegetables in a mandi bazar. Frankly speaking, if exams are the gateway to opportunity, then India’s gates are rusted, broken, and guarded by incompetent morons. The NTA, our esteemed exam watchdog, now only acts like a toothless old tiger, roaring but never striking the offenders.

See Also: NEET UG 2026 Paper Leak? Rajasthan SOG Probe Finds Over 100 Questions of the Exam Similar to ‘Guess Paper’

Given this terrible academic mess, one wonders when the government will finally get serious about appointing a competent head to lead education in India. Until we have an upright and tough taskmaster, the state of education in this country will only sink deeper and deeper. The government should stop playing with the lives of our youth and their future employability. I am dead sure, countless students out-of-frustration have already quit education for good. It is because they have lost the faith in the system.

Yes, it breaks the heart to see IT graduates in big cities working as delivery boys for Pizza Hut, Zomato, Flipkart, or Amazon. In the northeast, BA graduates are forced to earn a living by working as labourers, or taking up small jobs as plumbers, electricians, Toto drivers, or Rapido riders.

(A writer and researcher based in Shillong (India), Salil Gewali is best known for his research-based work, Great Minds on India, which has earned worldwide appreciation. His book has been translated into fifteen languages – with a preface by a world-acclaimed NASA Chief Scientist, Dr. Kamlesh Lulla of Houston, USA. Gewali is also a member of the International Human Rights Commission, Zürich, Switzerland.)

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salil_Gewali)

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