In the grand palace of India’s aspirations, there lies a rusted lamp – Our Education System. Once meant to be the light that leads millions to illuminate through darkness, today it flickers feebly, deficient of fuel and purpose. What was supposed to ignite young minds now merely gathers dust in the corridors of neglected classrooms and policy halls.

A System Rooted in the Past, Detached from the Present:

Step inside a classroom in rural India, and what do you see? A blackboard, a broken bench, windows without panes and a bunch of bored students memorizing irrelevant facts. We are still teaching students what to think, not how to think.

Our education system continues to follow an outdated one-size-fits-all syllabus that barely reflects the needs of the 21st century. In the age of Artificial Intelligence, Climatic crisis, Mental Health Challenges and Global Collaboration, our curriculum is stuck in a time capsule. The world is sprinting towards future-ready skills, and we are still crawling through colonial-era textbooks.

According to reports of ASER, 2024, more than 76% of 3rd standard students are not capable of reading a simple sentence in their own language. While the Gross Ratio at the primary level is near universal.

The Infrastructure Illusion:

India has schools, but they are not more than empty hollow shells. 152,000 government schools still lack electricity, and only 43.5% have access to computers, and the schools with computers have no trained teachers to operate them.

These are the places of learning, but architectural illusions – shells that mimic progress while hiding decay. Even where smartphones are a mandate in our lives, 90% rural access to teens, and only 57% use them for study. The rest are lost in scrolling reels, not exploring and solving. The digital divide is no longer about access but awareness and purpose. The torch was handed down, but never taught how to light. The system is scratched thin – and it is students who fall through the cracks.

The Missing Compass - Values and Vision:

What’s worse than not being educated? Being Wrongly Educated.

India’s biggest educational failure is not just outdated textbooks or crumbling buildings – it is also the absence of moral values.

Students are learning math and science, but not compassion, integrity, honesty or civic sense. We teach equations, but not ethics. We focus on grammar, but not on gratitude. Our classrooms are full, but our consciences are empty.

In a nation plagued with daily injustice, communal hatred, corruption and apathy, our schools have forgotten that character is more important than competition. Without value-based education, we are producing machines, not citizens. And no democracy can sustain itself on machine intolerance, corruption, gender violence and environmental degradation. “Value-based education is not optional; it is essential”.

A Degree Without Direction, Unemployable Youth:

Lakhs of students graduate every year in India. Yet only 10% of them are considered employable. This alarming gap between education and employment reflects a fundamental disconnection. We are producing degrees, not skills. We are chasing marks, not mastery. Vocational training barely reaches 5-10% of youth. Career counselling is almost non-existent. Soft skills like communication, leadership, emotional intelligence – crucial in today’s job market are treated as afterthoughts.

“We are preparing students for exams, not for life”.

Uneducated Minds, Unsafe Societies:

Lack of education often deprives individuals of moral values, critical thinking, and a sense to identify right and wrong, making them more vulnerable to engaging in criminal behavior. Without education, opportunities for lawful employment are limited, leading to poverty, frustration, and desperation — all of which can push people towards theft, violence, or substance abuse. Moreover, uneducated individuals are more likely to fall prey to misinformation, radicalization, and exploitation. Education not only provides knowledge but also nurtures empathy, discipline, and civic responsibility — essential traits to prevent crime and build an ethical society.

Spark of Hope: Education is the prime foundation of a nation:

When a nation begins to rot, it doesn’t start from the top, it starts where the minds are left untended. And in India’s case, the rot begins in the classrooms. We abandoned the books we censored, and the teachers we disrespected.

Let me make it clear: “There is no reform without education”.

• No developed nation without morally conscious population.
• No economic superpower without ethical citizens.
• Education is the womb where all revolution is born.

But what kind of education are we offering? One that teaches obedience over observation. One that praises silence over scepticism. One that rewards memorization and punishes imagination.

We have turned schools into exam factories, our children into rank-producing machines, and our teachers into overworked clerks. In this system, a student who questions a lie is punished. A student who memorizes without understanding is rewarded. This is not education – this is intellectual imprisonment.

“True education is not about how well a child can repeat, it’s about how well a child can respond”.

It must teach:

• Compassion in action, not just in essays.
• Integrity as a lifestyle, not just a chapter in moral science.
• The ability to say, “This is wrong-even if the world chooses comfort over courage”.

We must rebuild our schools as sacred spaces, where children learn to:

• Ask the hard questions.
• Disagree without fear.
• Think critically and ethically.
• Value truth over tribe.
• Stand up, not just for themselves, but for those whose voices are unheard and drowned in poverty and prejudice.

Every nation has flaws-but only an educated, ethical generation can mend them. When we teach the students that tolerating wrong is also a crime, we plant the seed of revolution in their hearts. And from that seed, grows a forest that no corrupt system, no dictator and no propaganda machine can ever uproot.

If the mind is enslaved, no law can make you free. If the heart is empty, no GDP can make you rich. If the soul is silent, no election can make you democratic.

A nation is not built by soldiers or slogans alone; it is built by students who dare to think, and teachers who dare to awaken them. We don’t need more schemes; we need more truth in textbooks and transparency in the system. We don’t need more temples; we need more teachers with integrity because,

“Children are the eyes of the nation, and education is the power of their eyes”. Let us light the lamp again with truth, values and vision.

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