“India’s education system remains trapped in regulations that reward compliance over learning and scarcity over opportunity. The solution to exam leaks, coaching factories and unemployability is not more licensing, but more supply. We need more schools, more colleges, more competition and more education entrepreneurs. A 21st-century education must not only impart knowledge but encourage questioning. India does not need fewer cooks in the kitchen; it needs more cooks, more recipes and fewer bureaucrats guarding empty plates.”

Manish Sabharwal, Co-founder, TeamLease Services Ltd, in an essay titled ‘Beyond NEET paper leak: Expanding supply is the only lasting solution’ (The Indian Express, June 2)

“The emergence of movements like the CJP offers a powerful, albeit heartbreaking, piece of political theatre. It captures the visceral feeling of being treated as disposable by a system that seems unresponsive to the struggles of ordinary citizens. It seems a safe space for those of you dealing with the crushing weight of unemployment, the rising cost of living, and the narrowing of the pathways to quality education.”

Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP, on the emergence of the Cockroach Janata Party (Indian Express, June 4)

“The abysmal quality of life in India is entirely the fault of governance. Indians are under very little pressure to be orderly.”

Manu Joseph, novelist, in an essay titled “What rising wrong-side driving says about our future’ (Mint, June 8)

“The average Indian student cannot buy their way into relevance. That they are increasingly being asked to is not a market correction but policy failure dressed up as innovation and employers’ abdication dressed up as a skills gap.”

Elizabeth Lyn, lecturer, OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat & Sibin Jerry Thomas, research fellow at ISEC, Bengaluru on the rising trend of employers requiring graduates to acquire skills certifications/micro-credentials (The Economic Times, June 9)