School students from Beed to Barmer on streets demanding better facilities

Social media platforms have been inundated with videos of students in school uniform protesting outside their schools, demanding better teaching standards and improved infrastructure. Apparently inspired by the Gen Z protests that led to the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as education minister, similar protests by Gen Alpha (born between 2010 and 2025) have now spread across several states, as videos circulating on social media show.

The protests appear to be proving infectious. From Maharashtra and Rajasthan to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, students have taken to the streets in support of a range of demands. Most of the videos show schoolchildren in uniform demanding an adequate number of teachers, better-quality teaching, regular classes and basic facilities such as drinking water, functional toilets and ceiling fans. Most of the protesting students appear to belong to government schools in rural areas, highlighting the toll the system is taking on disadvantaged sections of society.

Students are seen speaking on camera about teachers who are rude, do not take classes seriously and spend much of their time sitting in the staff room. They also complain about insensitive headmasters who paid no heed to their grievances. In one government school in Gaya district, Bihar, students sat on the ground outside the school, demanding that the district magistrate personally visit the campus to hear their complaints.

School students in Madhya Pradesh complained about the poor quality and inadequate quantity of the midday meal served to them. Saying the food was often inedible, one student claimed the principal had told them that the school received just 1 kg of lentils a day to feed 250 students. In several schools, students complained about abusive teachers and others who had little to teach them. A recurring complaint was the lack of functional toilets, forcing even girls to go outside to relieve themselves.

None of these complaints is new; virtually all have been reported in the media before. The conditions are also well known to bureaucrats and politicians. But poor allocation of resources, weak management and supervision, and corruption in teacher appointments and the midday meal scheme have steadily contributed to rising school dropouts.

There are reports that the police in Uttar Pradesh have begun intimidating students and their parents. In Fatehpur, where school students protested against poor classroom conditions, police personnel in plain clothes are reportedly visiting the homes of the protesters.

While NH has not independently verified the authenticity of the videos, many have been shared by seemingly credible sources, reporters on the ground and even media organisations. A sample of some of the videos circulating on X is shared below:

• A video of PM Shri government school students in Rajasthan protesting a shortage of teachers has gained traction online, a week after the nationwide agitation over the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak led to the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

• After Gen Z, Gen Alpha in Bihar has staged a massive protest, forcing the district magistrate to visit the school. At a government school in Gaya, students held a sit-in after ceiling fans, the hand pump and benches stopped functioning. The district magistrate initially sent a junior official, but the students insisted: "We want to speak to the district magistrate." Eventually, the DM had to pay a visit.

• It is a positive sign for India that education and students are trending on social media. "Nations are nothing but the sum total of the energy of their youth."

• Following in the footsteps of Gen Z, Gen Alpha is demanding its right to better education. Students in Beed, Maharashtra, organised a peaceful protest seeking better teachers and improved school infrastructure.

• Students in Ranchi marched from Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium to Albert Chowk against the functioning of the JPSC and JSSC, alleging that examinations are not being conducted fairly or transparently.

• It is a matter of pride that children are raising their voices for their rights. It is children like these who will help build a better society.

• Children should be in classrooms, libraries and laboratories, not sitting on protests to demand basic facilities. This is not the story of just one school but a reflection of a system that has failed to prioritise education. In Bihar, schoolgirls are raising their voices for their rights. In Tamia, Madhya Pradesh, students allege they are being served food infested with worms. Now, schoolchildren in Barmer, Rajasthan, have been forced onto the streets. When children across different states begin raising the same demands, it is a sign that the problem lies not with the children but with the system.