Equipping, Enabling, and Advancing Digital Education in India

With 1.5 million schools and over 250 million students, India has one of the world’s largest education systems. However, learning outcomes have remained subpar. COVID-19 has further disrupted education and learning, much more than any other sector of the economy and civic life. In India students confronted the prospect of a learning downturn because of school closures across the nation. However, digital learning saw quick adoption by students, teachers, school systems, and policymakers amidst the shutdowns. Teachers were trying to adapt to the available digital tools for communication despite the challenges of inadequate infrastructure and limited connectivity.

In this context, BCG collaborated with Google for Education and Schoolnet, to assess the impact of digital tools’ rollout on adoption, usage, and effectiveness for online learning. The primary objective was to determine if access to a set of interoperable digital tools could positively affect their adoption and use; and identify the potential way ahead for widespread rollout. With a robust framework, the report has compiled detailed data and insights on the benefits that digital tools are able to unlock in school education and the learning process overall. It also sheds light on how teachers adopt and use digital tools, and how they plan to integrate them into their teaching even after the shutdowns end.

Recognizing that the complexity and heterogeneity of India's education system requires solutions tailored to different contexts, the report suggests a comprehensive (but flexible) approach to experiment, equip, and enable policy makers, administrators, and teachers to adopt and embed the advantages of digital learning within their school systems.