With the rapid advancement of information and communications technology (ICT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved and been applied in healthcare, agriculture, cyber-security, autonomous vehicles, finance, logistics, e-commerce, entertainment, etc.  

It is reported that the AI market in India is expected to reach US$7.8 billion by 2025. According to a NASSCOM (2020) report, it is likely that AI will add between US$450 billion and US$500 billion to India’s gross domestic product by 2025. 

Since AI impacts UNESCO’s areas of expertise and education, the organization has been involved in this field for some time. UNESCO expects education to be profoundly transformed by AI, including in terms of teaching tools, ways of learning, access to knowledge and teacher training. A recent UNESCO report states that India should focus more on AI in its education system. 

While UNESCO acknowledges the immense opportunities that AI holds for the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development, the organization also maintains that it is essential to tackle the ethical issues related to AI head-on as a part of UNESCO’s overall effort to reduce inequalities in access to knowledge and research.

Persisting challenges 

According to the report, the education sector in India has several challenges, of which lack of resources and infrastructure affect the expansion of AI in education in particular. There exist significant socio-economic inequities in the Indian education sector. These inequalities exist on the basis of class and caste. For instance, A student from the top 20 per cent of society is ten times more likely to attend an English medium school than someone who belongs to the bottom 20 per cent.  

Similarly, the difference persists based on the gender dimension as well. The literacy rate in India is 74.04 per cent. 82.14 per cent for males and 65.46 per cent for females. According to the genre parity Index, India’s completion rate for upper secondary education is 0.85, which indicates that gender parity favors males.  

Apart from these, there are issues related to teaching, drop-out rate, linguistic barrier, digital divide etc., that are some of the crucial challenges of the Indian educational sector. 

AI-based solutions 

The UNESCO report offers a detailed description of how these challenges in India can be addressed by AI-powered tools. UNESCO (2019a) has advocated that the implementation of AI in education systems can revolutionize the teaching-learning process. Mentioned following are some examples of where AI techniques could be used according to the study: 

Machine Learning can be used for formal learning 

Natural Language Processing can be used for formal and informal earning 

Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, and Computer Vision can be used for teaching. 

Computer Vision can be used for evaluation 

Machine Learning can be used for school management 

Machine Learning can be used for mapping and matching of skills

Relevance and recommendations 

The report explains the importance of AI education in India. AI can provide a special focus for girls and women in the country, which can tackle the struggle of traditional gender roles. AI gives particular focus to disadvantaged socio-economic groups.  

AI will also enhance the opportunities for teachers and improve learning outcomes. In addition, it enhances the inclusion of differently-abled students and linguistic diversities. 

According to the report, one of the major challenges is the lack of policies for AI in education. UNESCO recommends the creation of partnerships with the private sector since the public sector alone will not be able to make the necessary innovations at such complex technological levels. 

Policies for AI in education in India should address a variety of issues, such as data collection and ownership, both in the private and public sectors. There should also be a focus on girls, women and disadvantaged socio-economic groups, all guided by the core principles of inclusion and equity.  

The report states that while no solution is in sight nor may ever be devised for some challenges, such as the explainability of AI, there are India-specific issues related to resources and infrastructure that can be solved. 

Read the full report here.