Student anger from rising education costs, not just NEET: Jairam Ramesh

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh claims student protests over NEET-UG are rooted in deeper issues of education affordability. He cited a CMIE analysis showing education costs, tuition, and fees are rising faster than household incomes.

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said anger and agony witnessed in the student protests at Delhi's Jantar Mantar and other parts of the country in recent weeks stem from "fundamental causes" of education affordability and accessibility, rather than just the NEET-UG paper leak.

CMIE Analysis Reveals 'Stark' Findings

In an X post, Ramesh cited an analysis claiming to be of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), saying the think tank had studied household expenditure data spanning 2014-15 to 2025-26, and that the findings were "stark".

"The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has very recently done a detailed analysis based on its household expenditure data between 2014/15-2025/26. The conclusions are stark," Ramesh said, listing five key findings from the analysis. "Education costs are rising substantially faster than household income. Households are allocating a considerably larger share of their income towards education. Private tuition has emerged as one of the fastest-growing components of household expenditure on education. School and college fees have recorded sustained growth throughout the last decade, consistently outpacing household income growth. Spending on books is rising even faster - that may reflect rising textbook and reference material prices, greater spending on competitive exam preparations, and on supplementary learning resources, " he said.

'Angony, Anguish, and Anger' Run Deeper

Linking the data to the recent protests among students, Ramesh said the immediate trigger for the protests lay in an "unfair" examination system, but the underlying anger ran deeper. "The Jantar Mantar and other protests in recent weeks have had proximate causes in an unfair and rigged exam system put in place by the deadly duo of Pradhan Mantri and (ex-)Mantri Pradhan. But the agony, anguish, and anger of youth and their parents have more fundamental causes of both accessibility and affordability revealed by the CMIE household expenditure data. They are crying out for remedial action NOW," he added.

Ramesh's remarks come a day after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned amid protests over the NEET-UG paper leak controversy. (ANI)

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