Dear Prime Minister,

India is facing an education emergency. Having dedicated the past 15 years of my life to working with schools and engaging with young minds, I have witnessed firsthand the urgent need for systemic reform in our education sector. Despite policy recommendations across decades - 1968, 1986, and the 2020 National Education Policy we have consistently failed to allocate the advocated 6% of GDP to education, a cornerstone that could transform the quality and accessibility of learning in India. Left unchecked, this emergency will turn our demographic dividend into a demographic disaster.

Sir, the CBSE and NEET paper leaks, and the atmosphere brought about by Sonam Wangchuk’s fast, present a real opportunity to fix this, not through the resignation of one minister, but through structural change that outlasts any single term.

My demand, in three phases:

Immediately:

 1. Form an Apolitical Educationist-Led Committee, independent of any political affiliation to oversee examinations, fix the vulnerabilities that allow paper leaks. Additionally they will build a 5-year strategic plan for education standards.

By February 2027:

2. Allocate the stipulated funds. Education is too often treated as a low priority within the concurrent list. Central and state governments must together commit to the funding levels our own policies have called for since 1968.

3. Raise teacher salaries, so that we retain and attract qualified educators into a profession that creates every other profession.

By 2029:

4. Fill all ~10,00,000 teacher vacancies.

5. Functioning girls’ toilets in every government school. Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao is a fine slogan, but where will she use the bathroom in the meantime?

To build a Viksit Bharat, we need an educated Bharat first. The sapling needs to be planted today, even though the bamboo takes years to grow. I request you to intervene, and I ask everyone reading this to sign and share, so together we can push this change!

~ Rishabh Shah

just another young Indian