By Nirmala Jenson

As India moves forward with AI integration, it is essential to embrace these technologies responsibly, ensuring that they complement and enhance the human elements of education. By doing so, India can harness AI to create a more dynamic and inclusive educational system, ultimately contributing to the nation’s growth and prosperity and fulfilling its promise as a beacon of learning in the 21st century.

The 21st century is marked by rapid technological advancements, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) standing out as a transformative force reshaping various facets of our lives, including education. Education is universally acknowledged as a panacea for India’s problems, including poverty, unemployment, and inequality. From ancient universities like Nalanda and Takshashila, India’s legacy as a beacon of knowledge and learning is well established. However, the education system in India is plagued with a slew of problems that are holding the country back from achieving true progress. A significant overhaul of the education system is a prerequisite for realizing the competitive advantage of India’s demographic dividend. And Artificial Intelligence can play a transformative role in this. This article is an attempt to highlight the potential challenges of integrating AI into the Indian education system while recognizing the transformative role AI can play in revamping it.

Understanding the Current Status

The adoption of AI in Education in India is still in its nascent stages. The National Education Policy 2020 emphasizes the importance of technology in education and promotes the use of AI to enhance learning experiences. The policy advocates for the integration of AI in teaching, learning, and administration processes to improve educational outcomes. Attempts are being made by the Government to partner with tech companies and educational institutions to pilot AI-driven projects and provide digital resources to schools. Initiatives like the “Digital India” campaign are helping to create the necessary infrastructure for AI adoption in education. Initiatives to upskill teachers in AI and digital tools are being rolled out to ensure they are well-equipped to handle the new educational landscape. Programs like SWAYAM and DIKSHA offer online courses and resources for teachers to enhance their digital competencies. However, there is still a lot that needs to be done to seamlessly integrate AI with the India Education system.

Unlocking the Opportunities

The most transformative role played by AI would be the initiation of personalized learning. The current one-size-fits-all approach in classrooms, which are clearly not homogeneous, is not benefiting all students equally. Added to this, teachers usually do not have adequate information about the differential learning levels and diverse contexts of each student in their classroom. In this context integrating AI can be transformative. While AI may not completely replace teachers, it has the potential to greatly assist teachers in efficiently and effectively managing multi-level/multi-grade classrooms by judging the learning levels of individual students and allowing automated development of customized educational content adapted to each child’s class and learning level. This can also be immensely helpful in the education of differently-abled students, thereby focusing on equity and social justice.

Additionally, AI can provide immediate feedback to students, enhancing their learning experience which can help them identify their weaknesses and work towards improvement. It also enables educators to keep better track of student progress. Thirdly, analysis of test results and attendance records using AI can be used to predict probable student activities and inform pre-emptive action. In addition to this, AI also improves administrative efficiency. AI technologies are transforming education management and delivery by automating aspects like admissions, and building on Education Management Information Systems. Automation of Administrative tasks like scheduling, grading and record keeping frees up time for teachers to focus more on student interaction and learning facilitation. Moreover, AI tools also hold significant potential for teachers to reduce their workload vis-à-vis planning, delivering, evaluating courses, and doing administrative tasks. This means that there is more time to focus on students. This is particularly valuable as India faces an acute shortage of teachers. As of 2017, India’s 32.75 students per teacher ratio was well above the world average of 21.75 students per teacher.

Challenges Ahead

However, seamlessly integrating AI into the education system will not be easy, especially due to the pervasive structural, technical, social, and economic constraints in India’s education system. Firstly, there exists an acute infrastructure shortage in the education landscape of India. Integrating AI into classroom instruction requires reliable technology infrastructure which may not always be available. According to the UDISE Report 2021-22, only 25.9% of schools in India are equipped with functional desktop/PC availability, while it is only a negligible 16.5% among Government schools. On the technical side, non-availability of Big Data is an issue.

Currently, schools are dispersed across the country with most of them having limited or no access to digital technologies. Hence, the collection of student transaction data on a large scale required to build and refine algorithms will take some time. As the NITI Aayog report emphasizes, any implementation of AI must be preceded by efforts to digitize the curriculum, records of teaching and student performance. With regard to the social constraints, there is a restraint from society and parents to accept AI driven education fully.  A survey conducted by the Data Security Council of India (DSCI) revealed that 87% of Indian Parents are concerned about the privacy and security of their children’s data in online learning platforms.

Addressing the Gap in Digital Access

Lastly, all debates around revamping India’s educational system in line with AI would be futile if India fails to bridge its massive digital divide. Oxfam’s “India Inequality Report 2022: Digital Divide” suggests that approximately 70 percent of Indians have poor or no internet connectivity and access to digital services. India also has low digital literacy – even among those with access, almost 60 percent of the rural population still does not actively use the internet. Access to and use of the internet are further divided along income, geography, caste, and gender parameters. Government schemes like Digital India, BharatNet, the National Digital Literacy Mission, and the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan are lagging. Ground-level policy interventions are crucial for the promotion of equitable and inclusive use of AI.

Success Stories – Case Studies in Action

A remarkable integration of AI in the education system emerged from Andhra Pradesh, where AI is being used to identify potential dropout rates. The application processes complex data sets that include details about student’s performance, gender, socio-economic demographics, school infrastructure, and teacher skills to find predictive patterns and offer counselling to students who are likely to drop out. For the academic year 2018-19, the platform identified 19,500 probable dropouts from the Visakhapatnam district. The key factors for these dropouts were insufficient furniture and inadequate toilet infrastructure. Other influencing factors identified through the application were: learning outcomes (57%), infrastructure (31%), transition (7%), age inappropriateness (4%) and social category (1%). This led to tracking, counseling, and addressing the issues of the students who are likely to drop out. On behalf of the analysis, the government decided to initiate drives to increase enrolment at government schools by raising awareness about the advantages of public school to students as well as their parents.

In addition to this, a school in Thiruvananthapuram district in Kerala has introduced India’s first AI teacher robot, IRIS, based on generative AI. Adorned in a traditional Indian Saree, Iris acts as an AI voice-controlled assistant, responding to user queries, providing explanations, and delivering educational content. It engages users in interactive learning experiences, through personalized content generation, quizzes, and interactive activities. All these highlight the changing landscape of our education system which is slowly transforming to accommodate AI. However, there is a need for a comprehensive policy backup.

Policy Recommendations

Any policy that utilizes AI in Education should be designed in such a way that promotes the teacher and student participation in AI Design. The success story of the participatory model of the IT@Schools program in Kerala, where teachers played a pivotal role in the integration of ICT in schools is a testament to this.

Efforts to disseminate AI literacy among students need to be taken. There is a need to integrate AI concepts into curricula from a young age and teach students to evaluate AI and its outputs critically. Many studies conducted reveal that more than 50% of students do not know how to effectively utilise AI in education. To entrench AI in the Educational landscape in our country the first step is to get rid of the digital divide that is plaguing the country. This is a challenge to social justice, equality, and equity. There is a need to focus on more digital inclusion policies.

There is also a need to develop ethical guidelines for AI use in education, focusing on fairness, accountability, and transparency. Efforts can be made to include AI ethics in teacher training programmes and student curricula. Data privacy and the ethical use of AI are critical issues that need careful consideration to protect students’ rights and safety. Ensuring that AI systems are used responsibly and that student data is safeguarded against misuse is paramount. Clear guidelines and regulations must be established to address these concerns.

Conclusion

As India moves forward with AI integration, it is essential to embrace these technologies responsibly, ensuring that they complement and enhance the human elements of education. By doing so, India can harness AI to create a more dynamic and inclusive educational system, ultimately contributing to the nation’s growth and prosperity and fulfilling its promise as a beacon of learning in the 21st century. By understanding the challenges and leveraging the opportunities presented by AI, stakeholders can work towards creating a more inclusive, efficient education ecosystem that empowers learners and prepares them for the demands of the 21^st century. As Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple reiterated, “Technology should be infused with humanity, rather than humanity being consumed by technology”

Nirmala Jenson is a Policy Research and Advocacy Intern at SarkariSchool.in and has completed her Bachelor’s Degree in History from St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. Please write your comment at [email protected].

References 

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