The chalkboards are empty, classrooms lie abandoned, and instead of guiding students through lessons, teachers across India are marching through streets with placards and anger.

From the white dust of chalk to the digital glow of ChatGPT—the journey of education has been nothing short of magical. Once, dreams were painted on blackboards with chalk; today, those very dreams have found new wings in the world of smartboards and AI.

The state of technical education in Uttar Pradesh has long been a cause for concern. Due to the lack of modern laboratories and equipment in polytechnics and engineering colleges, along with weak training standards, degree and diploma holders are unable to acquire skills that meet industry demands. The growing gap between education and industry has left millions of youth lagging in the race for employment.

India’s higher education system is vast, but its foundations are weak. With only three per cent of GDP allocated to education, universities struggle with resource shortages and overcrowding. Rote learning and exam-centric pedagogy have stifled creativity, reducing education to a race for marks. As a result, student stress and suicide rates are rising. While global universities emphasise AI-driven personalised learning and industry-aligned skills, Indian institutions remain trapped in bureaucracy, churning out unemployable graduates.

Missiles and drones can be built, and Shuklaji can be given a piggyback ride to space. However, until there is radical reform in primary and secondary education, and six per cent of the GDP is allocated to implementing the New Education Policy, Indian students will continue to struggle in science, mathematics, and language communication. This is no way to achieve a developed India by 2047!

Dust-choked roads, bridges collapsing at breakneck speed, and schools reduced to rubble—this is the reality of our so-called ‘development’! In a country where billions of rupees from the public treasury are poured like water, the common people are left with shoddy work and broken promises. This contractor system has turned the nation’s progress into a looting spree, where quality is sacrificed at the altar of corruption. It’s a poison eating away at India’s development from within.