Shashikala Meti, secretary of AIDSO’s Dharwad unit, said that the whole nation was celebrating the victory achieved through the historic students’ movement in the NEET issue.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
While celebrating the “historic victory” achieved through the students’ movement on the NEET issue, All India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO), however, has strongly condemned the Union government’s decision to constitute a task force for examination reforms, led by entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani.The Dharwad District Committee of AIDSO held programmes at various educational institutions in the district on Monday (July 27) to celebrate the success of the students’ movement at Jantar Mantar, which ultimately resulted in the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan from the post of Union Education Minister. Demonstrations were simultaenously held to condemn the decision on constituting the task force.Addressing the students, Shashikala Meti, secretary of AIDSO’s Dharwad unit, said that the whole nation was celebrating the victory achieved through the historic students’ movement. The students had demanded accountability and responsibility in the NEET question paper leak case and finally, the government yielded to their demand by accepting Mr. Pradhan’s resignation and replacing him.“However, immediately after the Minister’s resignation, the Union government has devised yet another strategy in the name of examination reforms. It has constituted a task force to recommend reforms in the examination system and appointed corporate leader Nandan Nilekani as its chairperson. Through this move, the government has once again betrayed the student community by trying to retain the National Testing Agency (NTA), which completely failed in safeguarding interests of the students,” she said.AIDSO firmly believed that merely appointing another reform committee or introducing minor administrative changes could not solve the crisis. No meaningful reform could be achieved through such committees and no previous committee had succeeding in bringing about any substantial change, Ms. Meti said.She said that AIDSO would urge the government to immediately abolish NTA instead of making cosmetic changes. “If the government is genuinely interested in reforming the examination system, it would have appointed educationists, psychologists, and experts in pedagogy instead of corporate IT executives. Under the guise of examination reforms, the Union government is betraying the country’s student community,” she said.She also said that the move to shift the examination to the online mode would only further increase the digital divide between urban and rural areas and that rural students would face more hardships. This move would effectively restrict medical education to the wealthy and influential sections of society while pushing middle-class and economically weaker students away from medical education, she said, making an appeal to all students to continue their agitation for the abolition of NTA.AIDSO Dharwad district unit president president Sindhu Kaudi, office-bearers Shanthesh Nandikolmath, Siddu Chippalakatti and others led the celebration and protest. Published - July 27, 2026 07:53 pm IST
