The reform that never reached the classroom

An engineering student who joined a state university in 2021 believed that things were finally changing. She thought she would get to study what she was curious about, not just what her stream prescribed; that someone would actually track her progress throughout the year rather than judge her in three hours at the end; and the degree she would earn would mean something when she attends her job interview.

She graduated last year. She is still searching for work that matches her qualifications. She is not alone; many students graduate each year facing this challenge. Lack of entry-level jobs today reflects the reality of the job market.

Walk into any lecture hall of a typical institution. Not an IIT or a central university, but a quiet, unglamorous place that actually educates the overwhelming majority of India’s 43 million enrolled students. In most of these institutions, Outcome-Based Education (OBE)  either does not exist or is not properly implemented.

A teacher lectures, and students take notes. The semester passes. An exam tests memory rather than reasoning. Grades are awarded and degrees conferred. Whether the student truly understood anything, could apply it, or whether it changed how she thinks- nobody in the system is formally asking.

Classrooms in crisis

A young faculty member explains his own quiet battle. He had entered teaching with ideas. He wanted his students to argue with each other, wrestle with problems that had no clear answers, and leave his class thinking differently than when they arrived. But the week ended before he could accomplish any of that. There was an accreditation portal that needed updating. A mandatory workshop on implementing the National Education Policy (NEP) reforms left no time to put anything into practice. A committee and a report. A student in crisis who needed an hour. By Friday afternoon, he had spent more time on documentation than teaching, and the lesson he planned to redesign was still waiting where he had left it on Monday.

This is another crisis. As of early 2026, about 25% to 30% of teaching posts in Indian Central Universities are vacant, and more than 50% of professor posts in the best universities are vacant. This has resulted in an increased workload for the remaining teachers. The remaining teachers are committed to doing a good job, but their week is already packed with other tasks.

Accreditation bodies responsible for ensuring quality in Indian higher education mainly focus on paperwork. In institutions, files are prepared, criteria are documented, assessment teams come and go, and grades are awarded. Meanwhile, the classroom — the actual space where a student and a teacher meet and something either happens or does not — remains exactly as it had been. Accreditation that cannot reach the lecture hall and students is not quality assurance; it is simply a well-organised filing cabinet.

Meanwhile, the student understood the system perfectly. The exam expects her to write clearly and completely what has been taught. It did not require her to think about it, to expand on it, or to make connections to her reading. She was only concerned with the actual incentives in front of her, not those in the prospectus. The clarity was a rational response to a system that had never rewarded her for thinking.

Failure of NEP?

NEP had promised exactly that: the Academic Bank of Credits with multiple entry and exit points and subjects drawn from across the curriculum. The student who had received these promises had tried, in her second year, to enrol in a course outside her stream. She was told it was available. When she asked again, no one had been assigned to teach it. The promise had been made, but the classroom had not been informed.

Five years after NEP, it is fair to ask what has truly changed. Although higher education has evolved, frameworks have shifted, and the number of institutions has grown, actual implementation has not reached many universities. 

Reforms that exist only on paper are not real reforms. What students need is an examination that tests their minds and gives teachers enough time to appreciate their efforts. They need a degree that genuinely makes a difference during an interview. That is true reform in higher education in India.

(The author is a Bengaluru-based academic)