The piece warns that our current education system often prizes academic success — placements, marks, rankings — over moral and civic formation. As a result, many professionally-qualified individuals emerge technically competent but ethically unprepared. The author cites disturbing incidents — a caste-humiliated IPS-officer’s death, a lawyer attacking a judge in court, and a medically trained individual committing violence — to show how education without values can lead to social harm.

The critique goes deeper: while curricula prepare students to analyse markets, treat patients or draft laws, they often ignore emotional intelligence, empathy and social responsibility. This, the article suggests, results in graduates who lack the sensitivity to see people behind statistics — engineers might overlook social impacts of algorithms, managers may ignore worker welfare, doctors may treat patients as mere cases.

To correct this imbalance, the piece calls for reimagining education’s purpose: not just as technical training, but as formation of conscientious citizens. Institutions must integrate ethics, social-awareness, and human values into their teaching.