Opinion | AI In Indian Classrooms: Implications For Pedagogy, Equity And Systemic Reform

The rapid proliferation of generative artificial intelligence has altered the landscape of learning across the world. For the first time, technology interacts with learners as an active agent, capable

of producing text, solving problems, and engaging in dialogue. Indian schools are already situated within this transformation. Students routinely use AI tools for explanations, grammar checks, or rapid problem hints, often outside the visibility of teachers. The question before Indian education is no longer about the presence of digital technology. It is whether schools can remain pedagogically relevant in an environment where students inhabit both online and offline learning spaces. Recent surveys illustrate the scale of this shift. A large proportion of Indian adolescents report that AI tools improve the efficiency and quality of their homework. India now represents a significant share of global users of generative AI platforms. Small urban studies suggest near-universal experimentation among senior secondary students. Teachers are also adopting AI for content preparation, assessment design, and administrative tasks. Yet many educators express uncertainty or discomfort while using these tools, which creates an uneven terrain of classroom practice. This combination of high student usage and uneven teacher readiness carries important risks. If assessment systems and classroom tasks continue to rely on recall-based writing or predictable procedural problem-solving, then AI will readily generate responses that meet these requirements. Such an environment weakens the validity of evaluation and widens gaps between students who have access to AI and those who do not. In this scenario, schools risk becoming institutions that verify memory instead of cultivating judgment, interpretive ability, or higher-order thinking. The digital divide intensifies these concerns. Only a little more than half of Indian schools report internet connectivity, and access varies sharply across regions. Government schools lag private institutions in digital infrastructure. Language inequality remains a significant barrier. Most generative models are strongest in English, with uneven support for Hindi and limited support for many Indian languages. Gendered access patterns add further complexity, as girls in low-income or socially conservative households often have reduced access to smartphones or personal devices. Other concerns relate to cognition, health, and ethics. Research links extended screen exposure with fragmented attention and disrupted sleep patterns. Teachers frequently report decreased student engagement during long instructional sessions, partly due to the influence of fast-paced digital content. Ethical risks include data privacy vulnerabilities, algorithmic bias, and the potential misuse of analytics-based surveillance tools in classrooms. The central pedagogic task, therefore, is not resistance to AI but thoughtful recalibration. Schools must articulate their unique value in an era when information retrieval and basic drafting are automated. Classroom practices need to shift toward interpretation, argumentation, collaborative inquiry, ethical reasoning, and applied problem-solving. These domains benefit from AI as a tool but cannot be outsourced to it. Policy debates often polarise the issue. AI is portrayed either as a catalyst for unprecedented learning gains or as a threat to educational integrity. The reality is more complex. Outcomes will depend on institutional design choices, regulatory safeguards, teacher capacity building, and context-sensitive curriculum reform. The future of AI in Indian education will be shaped in legislative forums and technological laboratories, but equally in everyday interactions across schools, villages, and communities. The choices made today will determine whether AI becomes an instrument for expanded opportunity or an accelerator of inequality. Indian schools have the chance to redefine their relevance by preparing learners to use AI critically, responsibly, and with cultural and linguistic grounding. The question is whether the system will recognise this moment as an opportunity for renewal rather than disruption. Dr. Shobhit Mathur is the co-founder and Vice-Chancellor of Rishihood University. He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay, the University of Washington, and the Indian School of Business (ISB). Prof. Prakhar Sharma is an Assistant Professor at Rishihood University. He is an alumnus of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, and the London School of Economics (LSE). Views expressed are personal and solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.