Students demand accountability
Srinagar, Aug 25: The cancellation of the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (JKSSB) Junior Engineer (Electrical) exam on Sunday triggered anger and despair, with aspirants calling it ‘a betrayal of their years of hard work’.
What unfolded inside the exam halls yesterday is now spilling into a larger political row, exposing the deep cracks in a system already scarred by repeated recruitment scandals.
At Srinagar’s Kothibagh exam centre, emotional scenes were witnessed as the aspirants broke down before cameras.
Muzamil, an engineering graduate from Sopore, recalled how he gave up cricket for two years to prepare.
“I wanted to support my parents. Today, I walked back home with humiliation. Our futures are being stolen,” he said.
Samar, a fresh graduate from NIT, described the handling of the exam as “absolute chaos.”
“We were given papers at 11 am, told to return them within 5–10 minutes, and later handed the same papers again. By then, questions were already circulating on WhatsApp. Where is the secrecy? Where is the fairness?” he said.
The JKSSB initially cited inclement weather for the disruption, but videos from several centres showed students scrolling through phones while filling OMR sheets. For many aspirants, it was not just mismanagement but a collapse of credibility.
The crisis is sharper among graduates and postgraduates: more than 31 percent of those registered as unemployed in early 2024 hold advanced degrees. A PhD in political science selling dry fruits in Shopian, or a doctorate in botany tutoring teenagers while planning to leave Kashmir, are not isolated stories but symptoms of a system that has consistently failed its most educated.
“It feels like our future is being stolen in daylight,” said an aspirant, voicing frustration over repeated exam failures.
