The Examination Extortion Machine: India’s Youth Trapped in a Rs 3.5 Lakh Crore Nightmare
In a country where the government’s annual education budget is around Rs 1.4 lakh crore, a staggering irony unfolds. Rahul Gandhi, during his recent rally in Kota, dropped a bomb of data: families of students appearing for just five competitive exams — SSC, NEET, RRB, JEE, and UPSC — spend over Rs 3.5 lakh crore every year. That is nearly three times the central government’s entire education expenditure. And this, he argues, is not a system of opportunity — it is a system of loot.
Let that sink in. More than two crore young Indians, supported by their families, pour money — often borrowed, often saved with pain — into a narrow funnel of exams. The question is: why does India force its children to chase only these five doors? The answer is as grim as it is simple: money. The system is designed not to educate, but to extract. The business of exam preparation — coaching, hostel, study material — has become a parallel economy that feeds on anxiety and aspiration.
The Numbers Behind the Nightmare
The data is damning. According to the December 2025 report of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, the National Testing Agency (NTA) collected Rs 3,512 crore in fees for NEET alone over six years. Their expenditure was Rs 3,064 crore — leaving a profit of Rs 448 crore. But Rahul Gandhi’s calculation goes far beyond exam fees. He includes the entire cost of preparation: coaching classes, accommodation, transport, and the immeasurable emotional toll.
Consider this breakdown of the major exams:
| Exam | Approx. Participants (Lakhs) | Estimated Family Spend (Rs Crore per year) |
|---|---|---|
| SSC | 200 | – |
| NEET | 22 | 1,32,000 |
| RRB | 358 | – |
| JEE | 15 | – |
| UPSC | 5 | – |
The cost for a single NEET aspirant — from Class 11 to the exam — easily touches Rs 4 lakh. Coaching fees alone are around Rs 3 lakh for two years. Add hostel (Rs 10,000 per month minimum), personal expenses, and the burden of loans. In Kota, during the rally, students openly admitted that their families had taken loans of Rs 2 lakh or more. One student’s father is a farmer — paralyzed, debt-ridden. Another said, “If we don’t take a loan, we cannot move forward in this system.”
Odds That Crush the Spirit
To understand the brutality of the system, look at the selection ratios. In a crowd of 3,000 students, only 1 will become an IAS officer through UPSC. Only 30 will enter IIT. Only 180 will become doctors through NEET. The rest — the overwhelming majority — are left with broken dreams and depleted family savings. As one student put it, “We have no option but to lose.”
This is not a competition; it is a lottery where most tickets are blank. Yet the families keep buying them, because the alternative — private colleges — is unaffordable. Government medical seats are only 80,000 for 24 lakh NEET candidates. The rest must either give up or mortgage their futures.
“This meeting is not a political meeting. It is about discussing India’s education system, what is wrong with it, what needs to be corrected.” — Rahul Gandhi in Kota
The Deliberate Destruction of Public Education
The privatisation of education is not an accident. Government schools are systematically shut down or neglected. Teachers are pulled into non-teaching duties — surveys, election work, saluting the DM — so that classrooms remain vacant. The result is that the middle class has accepted, by default, that quality education can only come from private institutions. This is a reality manufactured by design.
The Parliamentary Committee report notes that the NTA made a profit of Rs 448 crore from NEET fees over six years. But the real profit lies in the coaching industry, which thrives on the failure of public education. The system is not designed to educate — it is designed to generate revenue from the desperation of young people.
The Political Dance Around Youth
Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Kota was exceptional for its format — no teleprompter, no party flags, no mention of Modi or BJP or Congress. He spoke only about education, showing data, graphics, and engaging directly with students. But the political reaction was predictable. BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi held a press conference accusing Rahul Gandhi of disturbing students just 72 hours before the NEET exam. “Why are you causing mental agony to students?” he asked.
Let’s examine that hypocrisy. When the NEET paper was leaked earlier this year, did any BJP leader hold a press conference for the students? Did the Education Minister resign? No. When CBSE’s internal assessment system collapsed and students like Sarthak and Nisarg exposed flaws, did BJP stand with them? No. When a student named Vedanta was called a Pakistani for questioning the system, did any party leader defend him? Silence. But suddenly, when Rahul Gandhi holds a meeting about the systemic crisis, BJP becomes the guardian of student peace.
And then there is the timing of NEET itself. Why is the exam scheduled for the afternoon of June 21? Because the morning is reserved for International Yoga Day. The government could have held the exam in the morning, but it chose to prioritise yoga over students’ convenience — and then dared to accuse Rahul Gandhi of causing disturbance.
The most heartbreaking moment of the rally was when Rahul Gandhi read out Akanksha’s suicide note. A 17-year-old who wanted to be a doctor, whose father is paralyzed and took loans for her coaching. Her paper was leaked. She wrote, “Sorry mummy-papa, I have wasted everything you had.” The system killed her. Not just one incompetent officer — a whole ecosystem of privatised education, corrupt exam bodies, and political apathy.
Can Education Ever Become a Real Political Issue?
The hard truth is that education has never been a vote-winning issue in India. The youth who suffer most are often distracted by communal polarisation — the pleasure of hating minorities, of celebrating mosque demolitions, of listening to divisive speeches. That “Hindu pleasure” has replaced the demand for good schools, for jobs, for justice. As long as young minds are fed hatred, they will not fight for their own futures.
Rahul Gandhi knows this. Yet he chose to make education the centrepiece of his next political yatra. He is taking a huge risk: to talk about boring, complex issues like exam reforms and college quality instead of offering easy slogans. But the question remains — will the youth break free from the politics of identity and start demanding accountability? Are they ready to debate government vs. private colleges, the destruction of public institutions, the silence of the media?
The answer, sadly, is not convincing. In a country where constitutional institutions are undermined, where 27 lakh voters can be disenfranchised without protest, where journalists are jailed for asking questions, where MPs switch parties through back doors — can education alone fix the rot? A young person asked during the rally: “If our colleges don’t allow us to dream big, and if the country’s politics crushes those dreams, what is the point?”
That is the real crisis. India’s education system is not just broken — it is a mirror of a broken polity. Fixing exams without fixing democracy is like painting a collapsing house.
Criticisms
Direct points of critique — delivered as necessary, without flinching.
- Modi Government: You have allowed the education system to become a private extraction racket. You shut down government schools, you misuse teachers for propaganda, and you have no answer for the 3.5 lakh crore burden on families. Your silence on paper leaks and student suicides is criminal. Prioritising Yoga Day over student comfort in NEET timing shows your true indifference.
- BJP and its spokespersons (Sudhanshu Trivedi et al.): Your sudden concern for student mental health is fake. You never protested when exam papers were leaked, when students died by suicide in Kota, or when CBSE forced principals to make reels defending a flawed system. You only speak when a political rival addresses the issue. Your hypocrisy is shameless.
- Rahul Gandhi and Congress: While your diagnosis of the problem is accurate, your own party privatised education when in power. Congress-ruled states have not shown any alternative model. Your rallies and yatras generate talk, but where is the concrete plan to reverse the privatisation? Also, you avoid naming your party only when it is convenient — contradiction remains.
- Media and News Groups: You report rallies as political events but ignore the structural violence of the exam system. You give space to BJP’s press conferences but do not ask hard questions about the NTA’s profit or the collapse of public education. You are complicit in making education a non-issue.
- The Youth (general critique): You have allowed yourself to be distracted. You cheer for political leaders who give you hatred instead of schools. You protest when a movie is released but stay silent when your own future is mortgaged. Your “headspace” is occupied by identity wars, not by the quality of your college. This has to change — nobody can save you if you refuse to demand a better system.
- Parliamentary Committees and NTA: You made a profit from students’ misery. The NTA’s Rs 448 crore profit over six years is blood money. You have no accountability. Students who fail are left to rot, while you celebrate profits. Shame.
The rally in Kota was a rare moment: a political leader talking about real issues without the usual theatrics. But one rally cannot undo decades of damage. The burden now is on the youth — to look beyond the fake gods of politics and realise that their dreams are being stolen by a system that profits from their despair. Until that awakening happens, the exam machine will keep churning, and families will keep paying. The question is: how many more Akankshas need to die before we decide to break this machine?
— Based on a transcript of a critical journalist’s analysis, December 2025.
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