Study Hard, Get a Career and Get Ahead? It’s Not What It Used to Be.

Key Points:

• Students in India and France have led significant protests this fall, driven by frustrations with their respective education systems rather than traditional protest causes like war or climate change.
• In India, protests erupted after the government canceled medical school exam results due to leaked test questions, forcing students to retake exams after intensive preparation, highlighting systemic issues in education.
• French students protested poor school conditions, an opaque university admissions process, and absentee teachers, with demonstrations spreading nationwide and sometimes escalating into riots.
• Both movements reflect a broader disillusionment with the "meritocratic bargain," the social contract promising that education serves as a fair pathway to social and economic advancement based on merit.
• Experts note that while meritocracy inherently produces winners and losers, the current unrest signals a crisis of legitimacy in who benefits and who is left behind by these educational and social systems.