Students protest across the country, allegations of examination paper leaks continue to shake public confidence, and disturbing images from government schools raise an even more fundamental question: has education been pushed too far down India’s list of priorities?
Across India, videos and reports have repeatedly exposed conditions no child should have to accept as normal: inadequate midday meals, children reportedly served little more than roti and salt, or veggies dropped in water along with burnt chappatis – This is the mid day meal serve to students at a government schools. Some have overcrowded classrooms, leaking roofs, poor sanitation and dangerous journeys to school.
Heartbreaking video shows children that have been filmed risking their lives, leaping across giant drums balanced over a roaring, deadly dams, simply to reach their classrooms.”
The Indian National Congress X’s on this: “Watch this video
In Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, school students are seen risking their lives to cross a raging river. The students are forced to go to school every day with their lives literally in their hands in this manner. This is the same Vidisha from where former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan is an MP. The BJP, which makes lofty, pie-in-the-sky claims of ‘development,’ has been in power in Madhya Pradesh for nearly 22 years, but the reality is there for all to see. BJP leaders only care about the ‘development of their own coffers’; whether the rest of the public lives or dies is of no concern to them. Shameful!!
Elsewhere, footage purports to show teachers sleeping or absent while students are left without meaningful instruction, or eating watery dal. Each incident may belong to a different district, state or administration. Together, however, they demand scrutiny.
Because this is bigger than one school.
If even a fraction of government schools operate under such conditions, the crisis is not merely educational. It is a crisis of governance, equality and accountability.
We speak endlessly about “merit”. But what does merit mean when one child studies in an air-conditioned classroom with laboratories, technology and private coaching, while another sits beneath a leaking roof without enough teachers, toilets, drinking water or even a safe road to school?
And when examination paper leaks and recruitment or testing irregularities surface, the very system meant to reward hard work risks losing credibility.
India needs an independent, nationwide examination of its government schools.
Journalists, local reporters, citizens and digital creators should document conditions across states, regardless of which political party governs them. Visit the schools. Film the classrooms. Check the toilets. Examine the midday meals. Count the teachers. Ask the children what they endure.
Accountability must have no party colour.
Every Indian child, irrespective of caste, religion, income or geography, deserves a safe classroom, qualified teachers, nutritious food, clean water and a genuine chance to learn.
Governments should ultimately be judged not by education slogans, but by the schools in which India’s children actually sit. Perhaps this is why the education system is crumbling and students are now demanding for accountability.
JANPATH NEWS NETWORK (JNN)
Independent. Fearless. On the People’s Path.
