The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) is set to organise a strategy meet on August 5 and 6 in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. During this meet, the core members will
chalk out a plan to organise a nationwide listening tour to take into account the needs and aspirations of the youth. Times Now Digital, too, met several students to understand their concerns, ranging from exam transparency and outdated curricula to inadequate infrastructure and lack of practical learning. The one big thing that came out of talking to students is that they are not relying on CJP anymore to raise their issues as "CJP was just a channel to kickstart the wave of changes." Shivangi, a DU student, told Times Now Digital that while "the group (CJP) kickstarted the movement to demand for changes, the youth should not rely on a single party or a group to take the movement forward. It should be us (youth) who raise our demands, and the Centre who ensure changes are brought in. We cannot keep replying on political parties or leaders for genuine changes." Another recurring concern that emerged among students was over the implementation of the "outdated" National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Students believe that the world has changed manifolds since the NEP 2020 was finalised, and thus, it is time to revise the policy with the help of experts who understand the changing times. Shaurya, a second-year student, said the policy requires better implementation and regular updates. "NEP 2020 is not well defined and feels outdated. The policy should be updated according to the changing times," he said. The Hansraj College student added that it is also essential to "train our educators according to the NEP, because they are still focused on the old-fashioned ways of teaching in which rote learning is promoted, rather than encouraging students for practical knowledge."
'Don't Force Languages In The Name of NEP'
Echoing the same emotion, a student from the Faculty of Arts, Delhi University (DU), added that forcing languages on children in the name of NEP is a decision that should be reconsidered.
"Indian languages should have received greater institutional support much earlier. We have gone decades without prioritising our Indian languages, so we cannot wake up one day and think that everything should change now. China uses their national language as a teaching language, so do other countries such as Germany, Korea, Japan, and others. It's too late for India to simply dictate through NEP that students have to now learn Indian languages, which aren't used anywhere except in specific regions," opined Faheem, a BA Spanish (Hons) student.
Faheem raised this issue in the context of CBSE's newly introduced three-language policy for school students.
A group of Hansraj College students added that they, too, have to compulsorily attend Hindi classes in their college "which serves no purpose for us in our future professions. They also made Skill Enhancement and Value Addition Courses compulsory for us, and neither of these offer any real-life skills, nor are the teachers giving us any practical knowledge."
Talking about languages and updating the syllabus, Toko Kacha, a recent Campus Law Centre graduate, said the North East still remains underrepresented in educational curricula. Kacha advocated greater research on North Eastern languages and cultures, including efforts to document and preserve languages that currently lack standardised scripts, so that these can be added to the curriculum of central universities.
Syllabus That Promotes Practical Knowledge
Students also highlighted shortcomings in university curricula.
Tejaswini, a second-year Psychology student at Daulat Ram College, said her course "syllabus remains outdated and repeats concepts already covered during school education."
Her friend, Yukti, quickly added that teaching remains heavily dependent on rote learning and theory, with little emphasis on contemporary issues.
"We are still reading about what Gandhi or Congress did, but nobody is teaching what happened in Covid, what was the Great Recession of 2007 and such things," she explained.
A Physics student from DRC described her Delhi University (DU) curriculum as excessively theoretical, adding that "classroom teaching often remains a formality, and we are thus forced to enroll in coaching classes to understand core concepts."
She further added that Indian education still doesn't teach students practical life skills such as taxation, banking and insurance.
Agreeing with this, Ashish Panwar, an LLM graduate, argued that practical exposure remains inadequate even at the postgraduate level. Drawing comparisons with Western education systems, he recommended making internships of at least 15 days compulsory for all students or establishing institutional partnerships to facilitate internships.
'Research Shouldn't Be Limited To A Few Elite Institutions'
A similar vacuum is being felt by research-inclined students, too, who believe that many central universities lack the infrastructure and resources to promote the culture of research.
Sudanu, a second-year Physics student, said Delhi University lacks a strong research ecosystem and does not sufficiently encourage innovation. The student pointed to institutions such as IISc, IIIT Hyderabad and the first-generation IITs as examples where research culture is more deeply embedded.
