With the successful demonstration by the Cockroach Janta Party, a point has been made. A light has been shown in our national darkness. We can use that light, or we can continue to curse the darkness. The choice is always there. Gen Z has pronounced a fiat. It will be wise on our part to take heed. The education system needs not just an overhaul but also a complete change. A change in policy itself. We must now sit down and work out a system in which examinations are seen as fair, conducted professionally, and taken happily and voluntarily. Competitive examinations should no longer be associated with student suicides.

India’s education system has produced extraordinary professional talent, yet its admission culture has also created a dangerous emotional environment in which marks, ranks, and single-shot competitive examinations are often treated as the sole measures of intelligence, worth, and future possibility. This must change.