Smart

Education in India
by Devashree Roychowdhury


India as a nation is going through a series of transformations under the broad framework of a national
plan called ‘Smart India’. Smart India is all about creating smart cities having smart people around;
developing smart health facilities; smart water and sanitation; smart infrastructure and mobility and
of course ‘smart education and governance’ - an essential element in the present times. This paper
will focus on developing an understanding of the concept of ‘smart education - the process and the
status of implementation in India’, and also on proposing a revised plan with necessary amendments
to achieve this desired goal.

‘Smart Education’ as the name suggests is about using smart technology in knowledge delivery and
data creation. Smart Education as per Indian standards is about designing educational capacities that
are technologically enhanced using advanced tools, innovative platforms, and devices, operated in a
controlled environment. As the Indian government is focusing on crafting a balance between online
and offline modes of education, digital transformation in this sector is the emphasis as of now. In other
words, “smart education refers to the intelligence of educational environment, resource
management, and services, which is used to achieve positive interaction among education bodies”1

There have been numerous studies around the globe related to this subject but it has been observed
that researchers find it a bit difficult to relate the established theories and frameworks with the
ongoing processes of the government in their respective countries. Also, every nation has its history
and list of issues to deal with, thus policy benchmarks and guidelines for every country have to be
specific for it to be achievable; keeping in mind the international standards and its global positioning.
As mentioned by Researchers Li and Wong in their paper that some of the key components of smart
education are to be learner-centric, adaptive, personalized, interactive, collaborative, context-aware,
and ubiquitous2, the question is how do we translate these ideas into policies and existence.

India’s National Education Policy 2020 aims to develop the highest quality ‘state of the art’ education
system that is inclusive and affordable for all. This policy plans to amend the existing education
structure and create a more holistic and refined education model that is integrated with the national
and global goals. As per the current requirements of the country, this model must have a revised set
of regulations and governance norms for creating an organized, efficient, 'one education system' that
is well-balanced at all categorized levels - national, state, local, and village levels educational
institutions; government and private educational institutions - infrastructure and human resource;
and also, nursery, primary, secondary schools, and higher educational institutions. This education
policy proposes to include everyone in accessing the highest quality education irrespective of their
social and economic backgrounds. In reality, the above objective is difficult to achieve in a vast country
like India with an enormous population and people belonging to diverse social and economic groups.
Previously, RTE Act too had decided norms to achieve this particular goal but as observed its
implementation process had mixed results.3

1
Tong, H., & Feng, Y. (2014). Smart Education and Legal Governance. Proceedings of the 3rd International
Conference on Science and Social Research (pp. 392-395). Atlantis Press.
2
Li, K. C., & Wong, B. T.-M. (2022). Research Landscape of Smart Education: a bibliometric analysis.
Interactive Technology and Smart Education, 19, 3-19.
3
Right To Education Platform. (2013). RightToEducation/home/about. Retrieved from
RightToEducation.in: https://righttoeducation.in/know-your-rte/about
This paper intends to propose a new education system that will help ‘India’ in achieving this
challenging objective –

Anganwadi/ Lower Elementary

(1-5)
Basic Free Education
th One System
Kindergarten till Standard 12 in
Government Schools. Database
Upper
Elementary (6-8)
Pre-school
Education Polytechnic
Secondary (9-10) Diploma
(3-4 yrs)

Upgraded Masters (2 yrs)

Government and Upper Secondary University Bachelors (3-5 yrs)
Private School (11-12)
Standards with
Strict Monitoring PhD (3-4 yrs)
& Follow-up





One system database; Early childhood entry - equal opportunity for all

As per this revised model, the Indian Education Structure will have ‘one system database’ for the
entire country from the national to a local level that will include all government and private school
databases covering all urban and rural areas. This is coinciding with the idea of NEP 2020 of merging
all Anganwadi databases with that of the nursery and primary government schools. This revised plan
will have a special training and recruitment procedure for all Anganwadi, nursery, and primary school
teachers because that will be the ‘target group’ this plan will focus on. This proposed move is
important because there will be a screening and assessment process at this early stage for children
belonging to socially and economically backward sections of the society - an opportunity for all to get
into private schools and get basic education free of cost. This entry into private schools according to
this plan is not a quota-based but a merit-based entry for intelligent children that will increase the
acceptance level of socially and economically backward community children into the best private
institutions in the country. This kind of behavioral pattern among children and students is perceived
as normal as per conducted research and observations. So this shift from quota-based admissions to
merit-based entrances at this early stage will eventually prepare every child for better future
endeavors that are inclusive and raise the overall education standards in the country. Also, this
significant move is a step further toward solving caste-based social issues prevalent in Indian society.
On the other hand, the government school standards will be raised at par with the private institutions
that will anyway offer basic free education to all.


Upgrading government school standards

All the government schools in the country should have decent infrastructure facilities as per the
prescribed norms with advanced technological equipment and devices necessary for teaching,
communicating and interacting with each other in and out of the school. Special attention is required
in recruiting dedicated informed teachers who are interested in imparting knowledge to the students
and upgrading government standards in the country. Strict monitoring is needed to check the student-
teacher ratio; the number of students per classroom ratio and other indicators as per the benchmarks.
Revision of existing documents

Guidelines and norms in government schools need to be revised as per the policy objectives. Regular
follow-up sessions need to be conducted to check the work progress in the revised reports and also
on the ‘development on the ground’ in every part of the country. Revision of documents related to
govt. & private school standards and higher education institutions should be the priority of the
government if policy objectives are to be achieved in time.


Radius and location; Basic free education

Proximity-wise planning of government and private schools in urban and rural areas and higher
education institutions need to be revised as per growth and development in the region and policy
requirements. As per this revised plan, basic free education for all should be increased to standard
12th in all govt. schools. Existing govt. and private schools need to be checked and redeveloped if
necessary, and some of the govt. schools must be upgraded and extended to standard 12th as per the
‘revised proximity and distance norms’ in all parts of the country.


Budget allocation and funding requirements

Ministry of Finance in the budget 22-23 allocated Rs 1,04,278 crores to the education sector with
special emphasis on ‘smart education’. Expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP in the
financial year 2019-20 is 2.8%; for the year 2020-21 is 3.1%, and for the year 2021-22 is again 3.1%.
The target is to reach 6% of GDP in the current financial year. There is a need for a substantial increase
in public investment in the education sector by both the central government and all state governments
in the country.

NEP 2020 and Budget 22-23 plans to set up a digital university; one class - one TV under the PM e-
Vidya scheme; virtual labs under skill development and vocational learning programs, and launch of
DESH stack portal for empowering citizens to skill, reskill and upskill through online training. Apart
from the above-mentioned, we also need extra funding allocation for more scholarship-based intakes
in the universities and other HEIs for the less privileged as quota-based admissions and fee waiver
programs need to be continued in the revised plan that is proposed in this paper.


Special purpose NGOs

'Special purpose NGOs' in the education sector need to be sorted from the current list to educate and
motivate children from the slums and the homeless to get basic education and to join schools. The
revised plan proposes to tie up NGOs with the govt. with the idea to bring every child into the formal
system of education in the country irrespective of their social and economic backgrounds. Strict
monitoring of the NGOs is crucial to focus on early age entries of the students in the government and
private schools to have 'inclusivity' in the education sector. All NGOs under this domain should follow
the ‘age restriction criteria’ and after providing basic training should link every child to the formal
system of education. As per this plan, none of the NGOs will be allowed to set up an education model
of their own and will be compelled to link every child in the 'early age category' to the government
schools providing basic free education to all till standard 12th as per the revised amendments.


National and international collaborations

Online and offline association between different government and private schools is essential to have
an exchange of dialogue among students. Also, this revised plan recommends having a designated
committee to coordinate such meetings and interactions at the national as well as international levels.
Regular discussions and exchange of ideas on interesting topics between students of a particular age
group from India and overseas is an encouraging way of knowledge sharing and maintaining global
standards in the education sector. This step will further help in creating awareness about the
competencies of Indian students in foreign countries, eventually resulting in changing the image of
the nation in a positive credible way.


Digital infrastructure

Digital India Campaign and NEP 2020 ought to be merged to achieve the objectives of having ‘Smart
Education’ in India. The idea is to eliminate the digital divide by acknowledging the advantages of
technological advancements and recognizing the potential risks and dangers connected with them.
NEP 2020 highlights investment needs in creating ‘open public digital infrastructure’ used and
operated by multiple platforms and point solutions to cater to India’s diverse population. Digital India
promotes mediums like television, community TV and the use of radio to address the issue of the
'digital divide' in the country. Special emphasis is on designing e-learning platforms and assistive tools
and special assessment frameworks for online assessments. Online education training is made
compulsory for all users, especially teachers and students. Time to time upgradation of technology-
based solutions in all government and private schools and HEIs is a must to achieve desired education
standards in the country. Thus, ‘Smart Education in India’ establishes a system that will focus on
effective models of blended learning that is a combination of both digital and in-person learning.


Review and progress

There is an urgent need to prepare an agenda for the objectives - phase and region-wise
implementation of NEP 2020 at the earliest. A quarterly progress review meeting of the Ministers and
the Officials with the Prime Minister of India is crucial in attaining this ambitious goal and its
objectives. Yearly NEP 2020 progress report submission is expected to keep a track of the happenings.
Currently, the work is under process and the progress is slow because of the pandemic; need to work
on the suggested amendments and speed up if we want to raise India's education standards at all
levels - countrywide and worldwide.