Stop pretending indian education is equal —it’s not

A student from a small village in India wants to share what the system often overlooks.

Let’s consider two students as an example. One student has the advantage of sitting in a well-equipped room with air conditioning, fast Wi-Fi, printed notes, and a vast array of study materials. She also receives emotional and mental support from a coaching institution that has been preparing her for this exam for two years. Her college life is stable, with access to mentors and counsellors who provide guidance.

In contrast, the second student lives in a remote area of the country. He studies under the open sky without any facilities — no Wi-Fi, no notes, no books, no opportunities, no coaching, and no counsellor to offer support.

Both students are preparing for the same exam, facing the same syllabus, and sharing the same dreams, but their opportunities are worlds apart.

We have been told that the myth of meritocracy is a beautiful lie — the idea that if you are talented enough and work hard enough, education will reward you equally. However, in India, there is no level playing field. Urban students often come from elite backgrounds and have access to expensive coaching that can cost lakhs per year to prepare for competitive exams. Meanwhile, students from distant border areas struggle to even dream of affording such opportunities.

As Dr Ambedkar said decades ago, “Equality of opportunity is meaningless without equality of conditions.” We frequently focus on providing the first, but we often neglect the second completely.

what you think a govt college in a small town looks like

I tell you, vacant faculty has been empty for years

A guest lecturer is paid per lecture, with no job security

classrooms without projectors

libraries without recent publish books, as well as no relevant material, as you know, today’s world is artificial intelligence

Compared to that private college that charges lakhs per year, Smartboard internship provides a lot of resources, a good network connection, and a lot of career counsellors

You know the difference it creates when one graduates and prepares, but others graduate and start from zero. This is not a coincidence but a policy failure that has been ignored for generations

digital divide

During COVID-19, when India went online, millions of students simply disappeared from the education system: no device, no data, no electricity, no education. While urban students complainabout zoom fatique while, rural students walk around for kilometres to find signals to join that one class missed exams, and miss an entire semester. The digital divide is not just about speed; it is about whether you exist in the system at all.

boom

NEET UG 2026 — what happened

Yeah, this exam is conducted for the medical field, but you know what happened.

On May 3rd, in 551 cities across India and 14 abroad, for nearly 23 lakh registered candidates

NTA cancelled the NEET exam on May 12, following allegations of paper leak

NTA director general said the exam will be conducted again and a fresh date will be announced within 6to 8 days. The Union government handed the investigation to the CBI, which has already registered an FIR

This is not once it has already happened in the 2024 UGNEET exam, 23 lakh students, the same exam, the same system, the same failure, and the education minister walked away without a single word. If that does not tell you everything about how much this govt values students, nothing will

End,

We don’t want sympathy, we want wi fi connection, we want stable opportunities and resources within the deadline. Stop calling this system democratic, just fair. Stop calling it merit-based. We don’t want speeches, we don’t want committees. We want a fair education system in India. Is it really too much to ask for this from the world’s largest democracy