How is AI transforming teaching and learning practices in Indian classrooms?

For representational purpose 
| Photo Credit: Getty Images
The story so far:The U.S.-based ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, announced the opening of its first office in India this year. Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw remarked that India is uniquely positioned to drive the next wave of AI-led transformation. With OpenAI, the India AI Mission aims to build an ecosystem for trusted and inclusive AI. Besides, another U.S.-based company, NVIDIA, a world leader in artificial intelligence computing, had announced a partnership with India’s Reliance company in 2023. The global business giants such as Google and Microsoft have invested heavily in AI manufacturing and marketing in India.Tech-savvy pedagogyIn contemporary India, teaching and learning are tangled in ethical twists and turns as teachers and students are increasingly inclined to AI. Integration of advanced technology and pedagogy is arguably a new age mantra for the technocratic management of education. A report of the Central Square Foundation that works with the Indian government said that about 70% of school teachers in India are tech-savvy. Teachers use AI solutions to design pedagogy and curricular content. This shall solicit a qualitative evaluation of AI literacy and the digital divide in India.The National Sample Survey report this year provided information about the digital divide at the level of quality and skills. Although a large percentage of the population in India uses the Internet, the logic of inclusion requires participation in the digital world. Inclusion is evaluated through meaningful and relevant use of technology rather than merely usage.How meaningful is the intervention of AI in the educational world? Does ChatGPT enhance the quality of teaching and learning? These are the questions that ought to be asked while classrooms incorporate ever-evolving AI solutions.Unbridled AI in educational practicesContrary to the euphoria, the uncritical embrace of AI threatens the philosophical foundations of teaching and learning. Philosophically, pedagogy entails a humanistic dialogue between the teacher and the student that fosters empathy and trust. The ideal pedagogues in the history of education emphasised the evolution of emancipatory understanding in the classroom. Whether it be the feminist pedagogue Bell Hooks in the contemporary world or Rabindranath Tagore in early modern India, they envisaged a pedagogic alchemy that inspired hermeneutic understanding. The ideal teachers ensured that education was not reduced to the accumulation of information. The educational philosophy solicits a natural and organic rather than singular AI smartness of the teacher and the taught.There are also ethical dilemmas of using AI for pedagogy. According to a survey by the Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA), a high percentage of teachers employ AI tools in the classroom, more for the fulfilment of technical requirements than for dialogic engagement with students. The use of AI by students has become a concern for the Central Board of Secondary Education in India. The CBSE issued an advisory against using ChatGPT in board exams. Unfair use of the technology by both teachers and students has handicapped the pedagogical essence of classroom interaction between teachers and students. Although AI is enabling, the ethical complexity is seldom a consideration for the technocratic management of educational institutes.The current educational practices with AI are reduced to superficial use of technology. A teacher using audio-visuals through smartphones and computers in the classroom is mistaken for pedagogic smartness. The transformative capacity of teachers, instead, shall be the yardstick for the evaluation of pedagogy. Only then can AI in the classroom bring about a sense of equality along with improved teaching quality.India AI missionIndia AI’s mission envisages the opening of the AI Centres for Excellence (CoE) in education. The mission’s pillars are India AI Compute Capacity, geared to establish the infrastructure to support AI innovation, and India AI Future Skills is towards facilitating the talents to utilise the established infrastructure. These pillars can help create accessible cloud-based tools that promote basic digital literacy and equip all teachers with skills to be tech-savvy. However, teachers also require in-service professional training for capacity enhancement to develop an ethical understanding and meaningful integration of AI into pedagogy. Such a training shall enable pedagogues to critically evaluate and employ technology, with a nuanced capacity to transform the educational practices for a just society. The training modules need to prioritise independence and freedom, creativity and imagination, of both teachers and students.The mission’s Application Development Initiative promises impactful AI solutions aimed at large-scale socio-economic transformation. Such promising aspects ought to be emboldened in a context-sensitive manner when it comes to the integration of AI with educational practices. Only then would AI not reproduce the social and digital inequalities through seemingly unquestionable smart pedagogy. Without adequate social, ethical, cultural, and political anchorage, AI may become an anathema defended in rhetoric and abused in practice.Dev Nath Pathak, Associate Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, South Asian University; Avantika Dharmani & Vibha S Bharadwaj, Young Scholars, Christ University, Bangalore Published – October 06, 2025 08:30 am IST