Students in poorly resourced government schools or households with limited digital access may remain dependent on conventional textbooks and classroom teaching.
| Photo Credit:
Umesh Negi
M Suresh Babu
Yukesh Saravanan
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly entering schools, colleges and universities, generating expectations of a fundamental transformation in the way education is delivered. Generative AI, adaptive learning systems, automated assessment and AI-enabled tutoring offer possibilities for personalised learning, improved access to knowledge and reduced administrative burdens on teachers. Yet, in the Indian context, the more important question is whether AI will democratise education or create new forms of exclusion. This question assumes significance because India’s education system has expanded substantially in scale over the last two-and-a-half decades, while inadvertently jeopardising access to quality education and learning outcomes.
The integration of AI into the formal education system has begun. The Ministry of Education has encouraged the incorporation of AI into school curricula in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2023. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) offers AI-related learning from the middle-school level and AI as an optional subject at the secondary and senior-secondary levels. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has also integrated AI-related content into Computer Science and Informatics Practices. AI is thus moving beyond being an external technological innovation to becoming part of the formal educational process.
AI can personalise learning by responding to differences in students’ abilities, pace and learning requirements. Conventional classrooms generally operate with a common curriculum and teaching pace despite considerable variation among learners. AI-enabled platforms can provide customised learning materials, immediate feedback and remedial support, while assisting teachers with lesson preparation, assessment and routine administrative tasks, and enabling them to devote greater attention to mentoring and classroom interaction. Multilingual AI tools could reduce linguistic barriers, while speech-to-text, text-to-speech and other assistive technologies could improve access for students with disabilities.
However, the technological possibilities need to be situated within the larger trajectory of India’s education system. India has achieved considerable expansion in educational access. The number of schools, higher education institutions and students enrolled has increased substantially, and gender disparities in enrolment have narrowed. Higher education, in particular, has expanded from an elite system into a mass system. However, the evidence from the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) continues to show significant deficits in foundational reading and arithmetic abilities among schoolchildren. At the higher education level, concerns about graduate employability and the mismatch between educational credentials and labour-market requirements remain persistent. The central issue is whether AI can improve the ability of students to understand, reason and apply knowledge, beyond expanding access to information.
Digital access
This distinction becomes critical in the context of India’s digital divide. Access to AI requires much more than an internet connection. It requires appropriate devices, reliable electricity and connectivity, digital literacy, language proficiency and, increasingly, access to sophisticated or paid AI applications. These resources are distributed unevenly across households, regions, schools and social groups. Students in affluent households and well-resourced private institutions can potentially use AI for personalised tutoring, research, language assistance and continuous feedback. Students in poorly resourced government schools or households with limited digital access may remain dependent on conventional textbooks and classroom teaching.
AI could consequently trigger a new AI divide layered upon the existing digital divide. The divide may not be associated with the possession of a digital device. It could increasingly be between students who can use AI effectively and critically and those who cannot. The former may acquire an additional cognitive and informational advantage through personalised learning, instant feedback and access to sophisticated knowledge resources. The latter may remain excluded from these opportunities. A technology intended to democratise knowledge could therefore reproduce, and in some circumstances deepen, existing socioeconomic inequalities.
Indian classrooms are characterised by considerable heterogeneity in terms of language, geography, socioeconomic background, disability, prior educational exposure and learning ability. Pre-trained AI models may not perform equally well across this diversity. Students whose languages, cultural contexts or experiences are inadequately represented in training data may receive poorer-quality responses. Algorithmic bias can thus become a new form of educational exclusion. AI inclusion must therefore mean not merely access to a technology but access to appropriate, reliable, multilingual and culturally relevant technology.
Teacher preparedness
AI is sometimes presented as a means of compensating for teacher shortages, which could be problematic in India. Education is not merely the transmission of information. Teachers provide motivation, mentoring, emotional support, classroom discipline and social interaction. They also interpret the needs of individual learners in ways that automated systems cannot replicate. The appropriate objective should therefore be to make teachers effective users of AI and this raises the issue of teacher preparedness. Unequal digital capabilities among teachers could themselves generate an institutional AI divide. Well-resourced private institutions may rapidly integrate AI into teaching, while many government institutions may lack the infrastructure, training and technical support required for meaningful adoption.
However, the impact of AI on independent learning and academic integrity is concerning. Generative AI can write essays, solve mathematical problems, summarise books and produce apparently sophisticated answers within seconds. If students use these capabilities without engaging with the underlying material, education risks becoming an exercise in obtaining answers rather than developing the ability to formulate questions, imperilling deep reading, critical thinking, creativity and independent reasoning.
The central challenge is to prevent the emergence of a three-tier educational system: students who possess sophisticated AI tools and the skills; students who have limited and uneven digital access; and students who remain effectively excluded from the AI-enabled ecosystem. Such differentiation could transform existing inequalities in household income, school quality and digital access into inequalities in cognitive capabilities and future employment opportunities. Technology should strengthen teachers, support diverse learners and expand access to knowledge, but it cannot substitute for public investment in schools, colleges, teachers, libraries, laboratories and accessible infrastructure. Nor can AI alone resolve the deeper pedagogical weaknesses reflected in poor learning outcomes. The challenge is to ensure that the benefits of AI do not become another source of educational inequality. The future of Indian education must therefore be guided not by technological adoption alone, but by the principles of equity, inclusion, capability and social justice.
The writers are Director and Researcher, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai. Views are personal
Published on November 12, 2026
