Book Title: Innovative Approaches in Multidisciplinary Research and Development (IAMRD)
Chief Editors: Dr. Anil Kashinath Salunke and Dr. Rituraj Pant
Associate Editors: Prof. (Dr.) Sourav Madhur Dey and Dr. Amrutha Satheesan
Co-Editors: Dr. Souvik Sur and Dr. Phakir Singh
ISBN: 978-93-7183-004-1
Chapter: 30
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59646/708/30
Author: Tousifa Shahin
Abstract
India’s education system, the largest in the world by enrolment, serving over 250 million students across more than 1.5 million schools stands at a remarkable crossroads. On one side lies a long-standing crisis of learning outcomes, teacher shortages, and unequal access. On the other lies a fast-expanding digital infrastructure and a growing ecosystem of artificial intelligence tools that promise to personalise learning, reduce assessment burden, and bring quality education to children who have historically been left out. This chapter examines that crossroads honestly, drawing on real programmes and ground-level experiences from across India to ask whether AI is genuinely transforming pedagogy or merely adding a technological veneer to unchanged structural problems. The chapter argues that AI, when thoughtfully designed and contextually adapted, can meaningfully improve learning as demonstrated by government platforms like DIKSHA, ed-tech initiatives like BYJU’S and Vedantu, and community-driven experiments in low-connectivity rural settings. At the same time, it highlights urgent concerns: the digital divide between urban and rural India, the risk that automated tools sideline teachers rather than support them, the near-total absence of AI tools in regional Indian languages, and the danger that data collected from millions of young learners serves commercial interests more than educational ones. The chapter concludes by proposing a grounded, human-centred approach to AI integration, one that keeps the Indian teacher at the centre and treats technology as a resource, not a replacement.
Keywords: artificial intelligence in education, digital pedagogy, DIKSHA, Indian education technology, adaptive learning