Opinion: Digital education must catch up
As the quality of education is increasingly tied to digital, universal access to technology has become a necessity
By Venkatanarayana Motkuri
Public investment is a critical element of a country’s educational development. Various schools of economic thinking — classical, neoclassical and Keynesian — have recognised the public-good nature of education, and advocated public investment for educational development. Greek economist George Psacharopoulo and others have demonstrated that there are private and social returns to education.
From the human capital perspective, the trinity benefits of labour productivity and economic growth, poverty reduction and intergenerational mobility, and easing technological dissemination and adaptation have made a strong case for public investment in education. However, a 2022 UNESCO report has exhibited the experience of developed countries that continue to rely on public education, at least school education. However, the developing countries’ experience, especially India, shows a growing share of the private sector in education.
Accelerated Adoption
Digital education technologies have become an integral part of modern education systems across the world over the last few decades, with the rapid evolution in teaching systems. Covid-19 has only accelerated their adoption. As the quality of education is increasingly tied to digital, universal access to technology has become a necessity. Therefore, public investment in digital education technologies has become extremely critical. Most participant countries, about 133, in the Transforming Education Summit-2022 committed to making necessary arrangements and finances for digital education technologies.
For various reasons, State governments in India continue to languish in providing proper buildings and other infrastructure in public schools. Further, they have also been unable to invest much in digital education technologies. At the central level, the Union government too has been making meagre allocations for the sector in recent years, with only Rs 405 crore allocated in 2023-24, followed by Rs 1,595 crore in 2024-25 and Rs 681 crore in 2025-26.
In India, efforts by NGOs, civil society organisations and other CSR initiatives are more prevalent than government initiatives when it comes to schools and colleges. In recent years, many EdTech companies have come up sensing the growing demand for digital education tools. The India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), quoting RedSeers, a private consulting firm, estimates that the turnover of EdTech companies in India is around $5 billion. However, the impediment here is that access to them depends on individuals’ affordability, device penetration and connectivity.
Digital Divide
For a country like India, digital public infrastructure (DPI) is crucial in overcoming the digital divide in education. However, public investment in such initiatives is negligible. In this context, it is notable that the central government’s initiatives like e-Pathasala (2015) and National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR) are a step in the right direction. The Centre has made a provision for non-recurring (capital) and recurring expenditure of around Rs 12 lakh for an ICT lab and about Rs 4 lakh for a smart classroom, in government-managed secondary schools.
Though the NEP-2020 recommends an amount equivalent to 6% of GDP to be spent on education, the figure currently stands at 4%
While it could have improved children’s access to digital education technologies at the school level, the scale and the institutional device penetration itself are not so promising. The UDISE+ survey demonstrates the vast gaps in schools regarding critical digital infrastructure, including electricity, devices and connectivity. Around four-fifths of schools, especially government-managed ones, do not have such functional infrastructure when it comes to laptops, desktops, tablets, etc. It is even lower regarding internet connectivity. Besides, the gaps in teachers’ capacity building are another challenging issue.
Below Global Average
Our research has demonstrated that public expenditure on education, in general, in India is inadequate compared to the global average. Though the NEP-2020 recommends an amount equivalent to 6% of the GDP to be spent on education, the figure currently stands at 4%. Moreover, the distribution of public expenditure on education indicated that the Centre’s contribution is less than a quarter while the States bear more than three-quarters. As per the 42nd Constitutional Amendment in 1976, education falls under the Concurrent List. In this regard, the Centre is increasingly responsible for educational development, especially for allocation of financial resources.
Further, the Union government, since 2004, has been levying education cess to mobilise additional resources in meeting the finances of intervention programmes in education, such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Mid-Day Meal, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA). As per the constitutional provisions, the proceeds of any central cess do not come under the divisible pool and hence are not shared with the State governments.
The education cess proceeds, in letter and spirit, are meant to be spent on intervention programmes related to education, especially the centrally sponsored schemes, which could benefit the States implementing them. The education cess proceeds must be transferred to a non-relapsable reserve fund created for elementary education, Prarambik Shiksha Kosh (PSK) in 2008 and for secondary and higher education, Madhyamik and Utchatar Shiksha Kosh (MUSK) set up in 2018. This fund must be used after exhausting the standard budgetary resources from tax revenues.
However, the practice is different. There is a difference in the education cess collected and the proceeds transferred to PSK and MUSK. Besides, the Union government is diverting education cess — instead of spending on intervention programmes, it is being spent on the regular budget sectors of the Centre related to UGC, KVs, JNVs, IITs and others. As a result, States are not benefiting from it, and intervention programmes like Samagra Shiksha, Mid-day meal and RUSA are not adequately funded.
In the emerging need, this fund could have been used to invest in developing and spreading digital education technologies, making it accessible to all schools and universities (Central or State) across the country.
(The author is Associate Professor, Centre for Economic and Social Studies [CESS], Hyderabad)
