How Exam Hype Is Harming Kashmiri Students

Celebrating academic success is important. But in Kashmir, the way we do it is quietly pushing countless others into anxiety and despair.

- Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad Wani

Every time in Kashmir, as exam results are announced, a familiar ritual begins.

Local news channels run special bulletins. Social media fills up with grinning portraits of students holding their result sheets. There are hashtags, video interviews, and a steady stream of congratulatory posts from neighbors, friends and distant relatives. In a region where government jobs and competitive exams are seen as the surest path to stability, topping an exam isn’t just a personal milestone, it’s a public event.

And that’s exactly the problem.

For every student who clears JEE, NEET, or the civil services, there are many more who don't. Some miss the cutoff by a few marks. Others struggle silently under pressure they never learned to talk about. Their names don't appear in the papers. No one comes to interview their parents. Instead, they scroll through the success stories and feel a growing sense of failure.