I want to be doctor

by anouradha bakshi | Aug 2, 2026 | Anou's Blog

“I want to be a doctor” are words that I have heard innumerable times for over 25 years. Every time you ask a child what she aspires to be doctor is often the answer you get.

For the past few days the hallowed entrance examination you need to pass in order to get admission in a medical college is in the news following the disturbing exam paper leak. This led to 12 aspirants taking their own lives.

Nothing is more tragic than the death of a young soul. No wonder students are angry and have taken to the roads. They definitely had reason to do so and we all supported them. The Cockroach Janta Part (CJP) was the result of this anger. The protest began but sadly was soon hijacked by political parties, each one looking for their pound of flesh; each one looking at a possible new vote bank. The cause of the children was soon forgotten.

I am not going to recount the incidents of the past few weeks. Everyone knows what happened.

I would like to delve deeper and share some thoughts based on the work I have done with children of underserved communities for over a quarter of a century.

For the past 25 years we at Project Why have been working with children of a lesser God. We have helped thousands of children succeed in their studies and gain employment. As I said at the beginning of this post I want to be a doctor are words I have heard every so often, and each time my heart breaks as I know that this is one dream I cannot fulfil.

True NEET is a tough exam and may not be for these children many would think. You are both right and wrong. My children can crack NEET as you will be surprised to know that many of them are super bright. But in the present scenario, to crack NEET you often need to. join a coaching institute that comes at a heavy cost that parents of these children cannot afford. As you would have realised much of the leaks that have happened is because of the coaching mafia. I think we should borrow a page from China’s playbook. China banned for-profit private tutoring and coaching for core school subjects under its sweeping “Double Reduction” policy. The major goals of this nationwide crackdown are to reduce student stress, lower family living costs, and shift academic responsibility back to public schools. It is laudable for sure but has its own problems.China has seen the emergence of underground clandestine tutoring.

However I strongly feel that something needs to be done to regularise and monitor all coaching institutes.

Over 2.3 to 2.4 million students apply for the NEET UG exam annually, competing against a total of approximately 1,36,939 MBBS seats. This pool includes roughly 63,296 government seats and 73,643 private and deemed university seats across 823 medical colleges. Now the cost for each is astronomicalThe average total course fee for an MBBS degree in India ranges drastically from ₹30,000 to ₹15,00,000 in government colleges, compared to ₹40,00,000 to over ₹1.5 Crore in private colleges and deemed universities. I do not have to spell out the fact that these costs cannot be met by lower middle class and middle class families and loans are not easy to get when you live in a slum and your parents do not have steady jobs. So even if you clear NEET the door slams shut! Your family cannot afford it.

You can now understand why my hear breaks when I hear the words: I want to be a doctor. And what is even more disturbing is knowing that many of these children have the intelligence and motivation to succeed.

Becoming a doctor is not for the underprivileged. I wish people understood that, So you see even if papers are not leaked medicine is only for the privileged. Many aspiring students go to smaller countries like Uzbekistan or Ukraine to fulfil that dream even if it means that they will have to take another examination to be able to practice in India.

I came across a very interesting article by the former UGC Chairman Prof Sukhadeo Thorat entitled: Why India’s higher education needs greater public investment. It is a must read.

The article concludes with these words: India’s higher education journey reflects remarkable progress in expansion and diversification. However, the next phase of transformation must focus on equity, quality, employability, and affordability to ensure that higher education becomes a genuine instrument of social mobility and national development.

And if the CJP truly wants to work for the betterment of education than it has to look deeper at the aspirations of all children.

Food for thought.

1678 – Newton is the greatest pilot!

by anouradha bakshi | Jun 20, 2026 | Anou's Blog

As I write these words, lacs of students from across India and even outside are writing their NEET retest! The retest was ordered as numerous leaks of question papers were discovered after the initial exam. Paper leaks are not new. They have been happening for years with impunity. Often instigated by the coaching industry who would go to any level to ensure their students pass the said examination.

In the past few weeks, there have been many articles about the state of our education each one more horrifying than the other. There is only one common denominator :nobody really cares about children! Education has been in the news for more reason than one. First and foremost this year marks a sea change as new books have been introduced in line with the NEP (New Education Policy 2020) and require the teaching fraternity to adopt new and challenging changes in their approach towards education. What was/is hoped is that education will transition from rote learning to comprehending and acquiring skills that relate to the XXIst century employment scenario. Laudable indeed but is it feasible in the present state of our education system.

New books I said! Well first of all the school year commenced on April 1st but many books are still not available. In Odisha books are filled with aberrations and have, hold your breath, 1678 errors! Sample some: Sir Isaac Newton is described as the greatest pilot, a photo of the Karnataka Assembly was identified as the Odisha assembly, the Hampi temple was labelled as the Konark Sun Temple. Temperature is labelled as pressure. Equinox is replaced by Equator!!

Class VII books have the most errors: 705.

As always a high level committee has been formed to look inti the matter. Wonder what they will say?

So much for books.

Now let us look at the ground situation of schools across the land. The Niti Ayog Repor, titled ‘School Education System in India — Temporal Analysis and Policy Roadmap for Quality Enhancement’, highlights the ‘pyramid’ problem. 

The education system currently resembles a sharp pyramid, housing 14.71 lakh schools and 24.69 crore students. The drop our rates are still very high. While the country boasts of 7.3 lakh primary schools, that number plummets to 1.64 lakh at the higher secondary level. Four out of every 10 children who enter the system drop out before completing higher secondary education. only 5.4% of schools offer a continuous journey from Grade 1 to 12. For the vast majority of students, moving up through the grades requires changing institutions multiple times. Girls are the first to drop out as high schools are often located far from their homes and parents are reluctant to send their daughters alone.

To add to this, close to 7,993 schools across the country reported zero enrolment. While these schools appear operational in administrative records, they no longer serve any student population. These schools, despite zero enrolment, continue to receive financial and human resources due to the lack of updating of records, showing the difference between on-ground reality and planning, Many schools do not have water facility or electricity. You may wish to read the article.

The reason I share all these facts is twofold. One is to highlight the sate of schools, and the other to show that implementation of the NEP looks like a long way happening.The new education policy wants to teach AI from class III. My simple questions is: are the 7.3 lac primary schools and their teachers ready to do it?

Children are our future and education that meets the challenges of today is the only way out. It is sad to see the way students are treated. Because of paper leaks lacs of students have to study again for their exam resulting in unnecessary stress and mental distress. Six students committed suicide. Recently a new form of marking in class XII resulted in students wanting heir papers rechecked. The problem was that they would miss some admissions schedules. But who cares.

We do at Project Why.

We have begun computer skills and English from class I ! The children are also introduced to AI but are also taught to use AI responsibly by making them aware of the amounts of water and electricity the ginormous data centres use. We teach our children to think out of the box and be creative. We teach them critical thinking and communication in order to maker them ready for the job market that awaits them.