It is one thing to foster unity among youth based on the exam irregularities, but when the bells in public schools toll only for the poor and dispossessed, the chimes are never heard far enough.
“No matter which political party ruled, nobody worked for government schools in states,” said Abhijeet Dipke, whose Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) captured the national imagination in July. He led an army of Gen Z protesters against the NEET paper leak and forced a Union cabinet minister to resign. The public demonstrations against the government and the subsequent resignation were seen as unprecedented acts under the Modi regime.
With the CJP’s “School Thik Karo” campaign, Dipke has correctly identified the school education system as one of the most ignored aspects of Indian society. That public education receives short shrift from our political class is not lost on anyone observing the evolution of our republic.
The Gen Z agitators found a common cause against the government as the NEET fiasco affected everyone irrespective of caste, class, region, gender and language. In other words, the apathy of the government and its agencies created widespread solidarity that allowed youth from Kerala to Kapurthala to find common ground and fight together.
But Dipke and his supporters need to pay closer attention as they wade into this battle, for they will be confronting not just the government but a coalition of forces that benefit from the devaluation of public education in India. The interests are myriad and include massive corporations that run large, at times pan-India chains of schools; publishers and vendors who benefit from the private school system; and, of course, the apathetic government.
Who loses from weak public education?
Who loses when the government turns away from public education at the grassroots? The answer is obvious. The financially weakest and the most socially vulnerable look at the government for educating their wards.
Women, Dalits, Adivasis, and religious minorities benefit the most from robust publicly funded educational institutions. It is not for nothing that the previous governments in Andhra Pradesh and Delhi led by Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy and Arvind Kejriwal, respectively, tried to revive government-funded schools. That they could change the landscape of government schools, introduce massive structural reforms in terms of the syllabus, language of instruction, and see a massive increase in the enrolment rates of kids in these schools proves that when governments provide these institutions with the required support, they flourish.
What is interesting is that schemes such as the Amma Vodi, launched by the Reddy government are easy to implement and their impact is measurable. The Andhra Pradesh government has allocated around four billion dollars on buttressing education and health at the grassroots since 2020.
What happens when there is no government support?
For all the laudable things that the Reddy government initiated in the government schools, it merely took a shift in YSR Congress Party’s political fortunes to erase these initiatives. For starters, the YSRCP government didn’t focus on recruitment of teachers at the government schools.
His government, through the District Selection Committee (DSC), recruited around 6,000 teachers months before the 2024 elections. The TDP made teacher recruitment a poll issue and announced that it would fill the vacant positions within months of coming to power. They announced a recruitment drive for teachers under the DSC, which opened up 16,347 posts in April 2025. That close to 580,000 youngsters applied for these positions made these selections competitive.
Meanwhile, the Chandrababu Naidu government, after coming to power in 2024, announced a slew of rollbacks. It recalled the policy that made English the only medium of instruction, disaffiliated over 1,000 government schools from the Central Board of Secondary Education, and stopped classes that prepared students for international language tests such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language.
The DSC itself became controversial as the established processes were abandoned. While the DSC has become the site of political dogfight between the YSRCP and the TDP – and by extension their affiliated press corps and a bouquet of private channels – it is interesting to note a few things.
Some prominent businessmen who made their fortune by providing paid education in Andhra Pradesh seem to be a part of the TDP network. K. Narayana, founder of the now pan-India Narayana chain of schools, is a prominent minister in the current Andhra Pradesh cabinet. Lavu Sri Krishnadevaryalu, the chairman of Vignan University, is a Member of Parliament. M. Sribharat, the Member of Parliament representing Visakhapatnam, inherited GITAM University with its multiple campuses. Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, the member of parliament representing Guntur, and the minister of state for rural development, made his fortune coaching medicos to prepare for license tests. Recently, Bhashyam Ramakrishna, the founder of the Bhashyam schools, was nominated to the Rajya Sabha. That private businessmen who grew rich selling education are well-represented in the TDP’s innermost coterie seems to be a moot point. But would these individuals have benefitted from a well-supported, publicly funded education system?
The interesting aspect of the DSC 2025 has been the adoption of several arbitrary processes. Let us look at the 421 positions put aside under the sports quota. The TDP government issued a government order on April 19, 2025, just a day prior to releasing the recruitment notification. It overruled a 13-year-old framework and allowed appointments without competitive examination. The percentage of positions reserved for sportspersons was increased from 2% to 3%. Once the notification was out, the government withdrew the previous order. Of these, 372 of the 421 positions carved out for the applicants under the sportspersons’ quota were filled underwriting the due process. YSRCP, along with the aspirants, has made allegations of appointments in the positions earmarked for persons with disabilities. They have also alleged that the test paper was selectively leaked to benefit a few.
The youth of the state have protested against the double-engine government. For a party that announced the establishment of a quantum valley at its center, school education seems to be a tertiary interest. The enrolment in the government schools in Andhra Pradesh has gone down from 4,050,116 students in 2024 to 3,493,450 students in 2026. It should make us rethink the need for a strong, government-funded education system. It should force us all, cockroaches or otherwise, to examine where the priorities of our polity lie. It is one thing to foster unity among youth based on the exam irregularities, but when the bells in public schools toll only for the poor and dispossessed, the chimes are never heard far enough.
Joe Christopher, Ph.D., formerly worked with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs with the United States Government’s Mission to India for a decade before returning to education. He leverages tech and AI to empower the workforce for the next generation. He is based out of Hyderabad.
This article went live on September twenty-eighth, two thousand twenty six, at fifty-six minutes past eleven in the morning.
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