Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday described India’s education system as a “system of refusal” rather than a system of choice, claiming that it places an excessive financial burden and pressure on students and middle-class families.
Addressing a gathering at the training center in Kota, Gandhi said the current education structure was “extremely burdensome and unfair”.
“The education system in India is an extortion machine. We want a system that allows you to dream big,” he said, adding that the country’s youth are exposed to a lot of pain, stress and unhappiness.
The Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha said that the education system in India pressures, pressures and crushes children.
“This is not good for the country. I want all of us to work together to ensure that no student in this country feels what this girl felt,” he said at the ‘Chhatron ki Goonj’ Maha Rally in Kota where he interacted with students on various issues like paper leakage and unemployment.
“This is not a political meeting. This is a meeting about you, about young people who are struggling to have a future. This evening is about you, and the challenges you deal with every day,” he said in his opening remarks.
He claimed that the system mainly pushes students towards a few career paths such as engineering, medical and civil services, while discouraging alternative aspirations.
“Why does India ask children to do only five things? The answer is money, because the system makes money through these five ways,” he claimed.
Gandhi explained five streams for SSC, UPSC, RRB, JEE and NEET through a presentation.
He said thousands of students have to spend huge sums of money on education, coaching institutes, uniforms and hostel facilities, with no guarantee of success in competitive examinations.
He cited exams like NEET, JEE, UPSC Civil Services Exam, SSC Exam and RRB, saying thousands of candidates compete for a very limited number of passes.
“For NEET alone, around 22 lakh students appear, but less than one lakh get selected. These are very tough odds,” he said.
Such patterns make the system brutal and exclusionary, Gandhi said.
He further claimed that the education economy extracts large sums of money from families every year.
He added, “Students and their families collectively spend amounts equivalent to the entire government education budget for just one exam.”
He said that 22 lakh students appear for NEET and spend collectively $1.32 million crore, which is equivalent to the budget allocations of the Ministry of Education.
“Five of the biggest exams are your dreams – SSC, UPSC, RRB, JEE, and NEET. $Rs 3.5 crore is being spent collectively by families on these five tests. This amount is comparable to the government’s spending on ministries such as education, health, labour, science, and women and child development.”
“Then, students are told that the doors are closed and they cannot get into IIT or NEET. This is the reality of India’s education system,” he said.
Despite this investment, only a small percentage of students obtain stable employment, while many others face uncertainty, Gandhi said.
“Out of every thousand students, only a few get salaried jobs,” he said. “The rest are suffering.”
“There is nothing in India that prevents a child from dreaming, except the system itself,” he said.
The Congress leader called for structural reforms to expand opportunities and reduce dependence on high-pressure checks.
Gandhi claimed that out of every 100 engineers, about 80 were unemployed.
“We have to change this system. The education system we want must allow every Indian to dream big.
“The second role of the education system is to help you realize that dream. Whatever your dream is, the job of the education system in India should be to help you achieve it,” he said.
Gandhi said that the dream of the youth should be fulfilled at the lowest possible cost, without snatching thousands and crores of rupees from their pockets.
During the programme, Gandhi interacted with five students – three girls and two boys – who were called to the stage to interact. They were NEET, JEE and Civil Services aspirants.
Gandhi spoke to them about their dreams, preparations, money spent on them and their chances of being selected.
He also spoke to a UPSC aspirant and her parents on stage.
The program brings together a large number of students preparing for NEET, JEE and competitive exams.
Kota is a prominent coaching center in the country with nearly 1.2 lakh students preparing for NEET and JEE in various coaching institutes.
Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, will lead a national education campaign to amplify the pain of India’s students, demand accountability with the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and start a conversation on building a better future for Indian youth, according to a party statement.
The campaign will travel across the country, led by Congress units including NSUI and Youth Congress. Gandhi will address conferences in Allahabad, Patna and Delhi, the statement said.
Ahead of the programme, politics heated up with Congress leaders accusing the BJP of dissuading students from participating in the program while the BJP questioned the timing of the event, which was held before the NEET re-exam scheduled on June 21.
Om Birla is from Kota and represents the Kota Bundi parliamentary constituency.
