Ask any unemployed youth in India today, “What are you doing?” and chances are the reply will come pat, “Preparing for the IAS.” As if there’s only one sacred route left to serve the nation, by becoming a District Collector!

Once, they played with the flames of revolution; they were the engines of social change. Today, the brave warriors of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha, Youth Congress, and Students Federation are now playing flutes and tambourines. Attractive pay packages, new lifestyles, career planning, foreign trips, evening outings, and live-in relationships have trapped today's youth in a web—they no longer dream of revolution. Thinking about the nation and society? So outdated!!

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.