Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma (RGV) on Monday, 27 July posted a lengthy note on X (formerly Twitter) calling for the abolition of the current education system, arguing that artificial intelligence has rendered traditional degree-based learning obsolete. The remarks have sparked fresh debate amid the ongoing controversy over the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak.

What RGV Said

In his post, Varma wrote: 'EDUCATION SHOULD BE KILLED', framing the existing model — memorise, write, pass, get a degree, get a job — as a formula that has outlived its relevance. He argued that a medical student spending 10 years on an MBBS plus postgraduate plus specialisation course is investing time to learn what, in his words, 'the AI in his pocket already knows.'

He cited Geoffrey Hinton, widely regarded as a founding figure of modern artificial intelligence, as someone who has publicly warned that AI will outperform humans across domains. Varma claimed that 'all experts agree that AI will keep taking over what doctors are currently doing in the next 1 or 2 years,' though this characterisation goes beyond the scientific consensus and should be treated as the filmmaker's opinion.

The Core Argument

Varma questioned why students are still preparing for NEET or enrolling in medical programmes when, he contends, diagnosis is increasingly algorithmic and surgery is becoming robotic. He described the human doctor as 'slowly becoming a middleman' who no longer needs a decade of formal training.

He also criticised teachers and parents for perpetuating the status quo, writing that a student who asks 'Why am I memorising what my phone already knows?' is 'treated like a radical instead of the only sane person.' Notably, he was careful to add: 'This is not about demeaning parents or teachers. They either do not know or are living in denial.'

His conclusion was blunt: 'Everyone needs to buckle up and kill the education system in its present form, before young people's futures are killed by the elderly ignorants. The only hope is to steer them super fast towards AI and throw everything else into the dustbin.'

The NEET-UG 2026 Backdrop

Varma's remarks arrive at a charged moment for Indian education policy. The NEET-UG 2026 paper leak controversy has roiled the country, culminating in the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The political satire movement Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) laid siege on Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, demanding Pradhan's resignation.

Following his resignation, CJP called off the protest. However, according to reports, police subsequently began rounding up protesters after the strike was withdrawn. CJP has termed this a 'breach of trust' on the government's part and has warned it will revive the agitation if existing charges against protesters are not dropped.

Reaction and Context

This is not the first time RGV has used social media to stake out a maximalist position on a public issue. Critics argue that while the debate around AI disrupting professional education is legitimate and increasingly mainstream, Varma's framing — calling for education to be 'killed' outright — conflates a genuine structural challenge with rhetorical provocation. Experts in education technology have long argued for reforming, not discarding, formal learning frameworks to integrate AI literacy. Whether RGV's post advances that conversation or simply amplifies noise remains, for many observers, an open question.