Changing the Education Minister may calm public anger for a few days. The minister heads the department and must accept political responsibility when an examination affecting millions of students collapses.
But let us be honest. The minister would probably be the last person to see or handle the question paper.
Removing him may punish one political face. It will not stop the next leak. Ministers will change, officials will be transferred and middlemen will be arrested. The system will remain.
Paper leaks are not isolated crimes. They are the criminal end of a parallel education economy built around coaching centres, dummy schools, scarce seats and unbearable competition.
Regular schools and colleges are no longer trusted to prepare students for competitive examinations. A child may be enrolled in a recognised school, but the real teaching happens at a coaching centre. The school often provides only attendance, internal marks and board-examination eligibility.
These are dummy schools in everything except name. The focus has shifted from education to selection.
Coaching centres compete to produce a few IIT, medical and professional-course selections. Successful students are displayed in full-page advertisements, on hoardings and across social media. One student’s rank becomes the institute’s advertisement for the next batch.
The more selections an institute claims, the more students it attracts. The more students it attracts, the more money it earns. In such a business, access to an insider, a few genuine questions or a complete paper may be worth crores.
This is the crux of the problem.
The paper may be stolen by someone in an examination agency, university, printing press, courier company or testing centre. But a leaked paper needs buyers. Coaching networks provide the market. They have access to thousands of anxious students and ambitious parents. They know who is desperate, who can pay and who will remain silent.
Not every coaching centre is corrupt. Many teachers work honestly. But parts of this industry have acquired mafia-like features, with money, influence, links with schools and access to students.
The problem is not new.
It was 1984. I was studying pre-engineering at DAV College, Chandigarh. That was the first year of the entrance examination for Punjab Engineering College, Guru Nanak Engineering College and Thapar Institute.
There were no giant coaching factories. There were group tuitions. During cold Chandigarh mornings, I rode my Bajaj scooter from physics tuition to chemistry and then mathematics. Like students today, we believed one examination could decide our future.
Just before the examination, rumours spread that a middleman was demanding money for the question paper. I never discovered whether it was genuine or merely a fraud meant to exploit frightened parents.
I prepared and secured admission to Guru Nanak Engineering College. But even in 1984, a market for the promise of a leaked paper existed.
Three decades later, in 2014, my son appeared in an entrance examination. He came out smiling and said the paper had gone well. Then reports of a leak emerged. The examination was cancelled, and he had to appear again.
Technology had changed. The number of candidates had multiplied. Coaching had become a huge industry. But the honest student was still the victim.
India has a massive population and too few quality seats. Reservation adds to the pressure on general-category students, who feel that even very high marks may not be enough.
This should not become hostility towards students from reserved communities. They did not create the shortage. The real failure is that successive governments have not expanded quality institutions in proportion to the population.
Reservation distributes scarce seats. It does not create more seats.
Kota represents the harshest face of this system. The series Kota Factory gives a disturbing insight into endless tests, batch divisions, loneliness, parental financial pressure and the fear of failure.
The student is no longer treated as a child. He becomes a rank.
At least 127 coaching students reportedly died by suicide in Kota between 2015 and 2024. The crisis peaked in 2023, with around 26 reported deaths, followed by 17 in 2024. These are not merely personal tragedies. They are warnings from a system that monetises fear and celebrates toppers while forgetting everyone else.
Why are question papers still printed days in advance and passed through many hands in a high-technology age?
For computer-based examinations, a secure system can generate papers from a large encrypted question bank just minutes before the examination. Every login, transfer and download can be recorded. No individual should have advance access to the complete paper.
Even for written examinations, encrypted papers can be transmitted shortly before the test and printed under camera supervision.
India must also regulate coaching centres as a major commercial industry. Their ownership, fees, finances, actual success rates and links with schools must be disclosed. They should not be allowed to claim every successful student who merely bought a test series.
Dummy admissions and fabricated attendance must lead to cancellation of affiliation and criminal prosecution. The financial relationship between schools and coaching centres must also be investigated.
Changing a minister will not alter this.
A minister must take responsibility, but resignation cannot become a substitute for reform. Strengthen the education in schools and colleges. Expand quality seats. Eliminate dummy schools. Regulate coaching centres. Use technology to reduce human access to question papers.
Otherwise, another paper will leak, another examination will be cancelled and another minister will be sacrificed.
Feedback and comments mann.gurpartap@gmail.com
- Gurpartap Singh Mann is a farmer and former Member of the Punjab Public Service Commission. He has earlier served as Chief General Manager, Punjab Infrastructure Development Board.
- An Engineer and MBA by qualification, he writes on governance, agriculture, and socio-political issues concerning Punjab.
He was earlier Spokesperson of Punjab Congress and founder Chairman of its Social Media Cell. - His father, S. Bhupinder Singh Mann, former Member of the Rajya Sabha, is a prominent Kisan leader and founder of the Bharti Kisan Union in Punjab and All India Kisan Coordination Committee at National Level.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views or editorial position of YesPunjab.com, which accepts no responsibility for the opinions expressed herein.
July 29, 2026
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