How AI helps to bridge learning gaps in Indian schools
| Bengaluru
In a classroom in the southern聽Indian city of Bengaluru, half a dozen young students sit at a desk, listening intently to a small black device as a woman鈥檚 voice calls out simple sentences in English, that they then repeat carefully.
The device, an Amazon Echo Dot speaker, uses artificial intelligence-enabled voice recognition technology to help the students improve their reading, listening, and speaking in English 鈥� for some their second language, for others their third.
In the municipal-funded school, the English language tool has helped dozens of first-generation learners gain in confidence and ability, said teacher Lingesh K, who goes by his first name.
鈥淚t is a new way of learning 鈥� the technology is novel for the kids, and they also find it entertaining,鈥� said Lingesh, who has taught English in the school for two years, and has used the聽AI-enabled system, Tara, for the past year in his classes.
鈥淓very child gets a chance to interact with the device. The technology is not a substitute for lesson, but it is a good complement,鈥� he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
As advances in聽AI聽gather pace and the technology is increasingly used in areas from marketing, to law and surveillance, there is a big push by the聽Indian government and by tech firms to more firmly entrench it in education.
From helping teach English, to assisting teachers with lesson plans, to identifying pupils at risk of dropping out,聽AI聽tools are helping bridge learning gaps that widened in schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, tech and education experts said.
鈥淭he majority of schools in聽India聽don鈥檛 have the resources for high-tech solutions, and parents cannot afford additional tutoring support,鈥� said Gowri Mahesh, a co-founder at Learning Matters, the edtech firm in Bengaluru that built Tara, which is used in about 200 schools in three聽Indian states.
鈥淓nglish language ability is one such gap. The solution needed to be light on hardware, accessible, affordable, non-judgmental and suitable for a range of requirements,鈥� she said.
Customized approach
India鈥檚 landmark Right to Education Act in 2009 made education a fundamental right of every child aged six to 14, yet spending on education as a share of total GDP (gross domestic product) is less than 3% 鈥� among the lowest of developing nations.
There were some 267 million children enrolled in about 1.5 million schools nationwide last year, according to official data. Less than half the schools had a computer and just over a third had internet access.
So startups, nonprofits, and big tech firms are customizing聽AI聽tools for specific environments and learning needs.
Faced with a large number of students dropping out, the southern state of Andhra Pradesh used a Microsoft聽AI聽system that compiled data on gender, academic performance, and socio-economic metrics to predict potential dropouts, so they and their parents could be counseled.
While Sikshana Foundation, a nonprofit that聽aims to improve聽India鈥檚 state school system, focuses on easing the load of teachers who often handle several subjects and grades.
Last month, it introduced an聽AI-enabled bot named Shiksha 鈥� meaning education in Hindi 鈥� developed by Microsoft Research, which helps teachers create lesson plans, student activities, and assessments. It also responds to queries.
About 30 teachers use the English-language bot in southern Karnataka state, with plans to extend it nationwide, and add regional languages, said Smitha Venkatesh, a technology advisor at Sikshana Foundation.
The bot can help teachers save up to 75% of the time they would otherwise spend on lesson plans and assignments, she said.
鈥淓ven in small village schools, teachers are trying their best to incorporate technology, but they don鈥檛 have the resources,鈥� said Kalika Bali, principal researcher at Microsoft Research聽India, who was named among the 100 most influential people in聽AI聽by Time magazine this year.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the teachers we have to empower, it鈥檚 the teaching system we have to build up,鈥� she added.
Privacy fears
The introduction of ChatGPT in November 2022 accelerated the adoption of generative聽AI聽in education, with some welcoming its ease of use, while others worried about plagiarism, misinformation, and inbuilt cultural bias.
But while the technology has the potential to transform education, it can also widen inequities and disparities, warned Libing Wang at the U.N. cultural agency (UNESCO), which has set a framework for generative聽AI聽use in education.
鈥淭he potential of generative聽AI聽in education is significant, but requires a comprehensive, nuanced, and rights-based approach,鈥� said Mr. Wang.
鈥淲e should avoid a naive 鈥榯echnological solutionism鈥� belief 鈥撀燗I聽will not and cannot solve all our problems, including those in education.鈥�
There are fears about the misuse of student data in聽India, where聽AI-enabled facial recognition systems have been installed in schools for checking attendance and for safety purposes, despite privacy concerns.
There have been reports 鈥� including by Human Rights Watch 鈥� of leaks of data on millions of students and teachers collected by the state education app Diksha, which can also track their locations.
The government has not commented on these reports.
As聽AI聽is used in more聽Indian classrooms, more student data will be collected, yet there are few guardrails to protect the data from misuse, said Prateek Waghre, executive director at Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights group.
鈥淚t is not clear what data is being collected, how it will be used, and if there will be a meaningful consent mechanism for students and parents to have a say in this, or to opt-out,鈥� he said.
鈥淲hile we have a personal data protection law, we don鈥檛 know how it will be enforced. And when聽AI聽in education is sold as a part of the broader digital public infrastructure, that law won鈥檛 really apply,鈥� Mr. Waghre said.
The IT Ministry and the Education Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
In Bengaluru, Learning Matters 鈥� which applies privacy protections for data collected by Tara 鈥� has made English lessons fun for 13-year-old Chetan, the son of a construction worker.
鈥淚 like talking to Tara, learning new words and sentences,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 also like my teacher. So I would like to have my teacher and Tara.鈥�
This story was reported by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
