SAKSHI SETHI

There is a quiet tragedy unfolding in Indian classrooms, not in the form of crumbling infrastructure or absent teachers, but in something far more insidious: the gradual erosion of a child’s belief that hard work truly matters. Consider a scenario that is no longer hypothetical. A fifteen-year-old studies with the same dedication, the same late nights, and the same anxious anticipation as any other student in the country. Under one board, his efforts earn him 52 per cent.

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In the silence of the modern home, family time has slowly been replaced by screen time. Families return to the same room, but not always to each other. Instead of conversation, the space is filled with the blue light of scrolling parents and gaming children. A parent checks emails or social media while a child watches videos or plays games on a tablet. Physically, they are together, yet emotionally they may be miles apart.