National Policies on ICT in Education: What You Need to Know

Technology in education is no longer optional – it is a policy imperative. Across the world, governments are recognising that without a clear policy framework, digital tools in classrooms remain underutilised or inequitably distributed. In India, where over 250 million children attend school, the challenge is not just about putting devices in classrooms. It is about creating a coherent, inclusive, and forward-looking policy ecosystem that ensures every learner – regardless of geography or socioeconomic background – can benefit from technology. This post walks you through the key national policies shaping ICT use in Indian education, what they mean in practice, and where they are headed.

ICT policy in schools: guidelines for integrating technology 🔗

The foundation of India’s approach to technology in schools lies in the National Policy on ICT in School Education. Inspired by the tremendous potential of ICT for enhancing outreach and improving quality of education, this policy aims to provide guidelines to assist states in optimising the use of ICT in school education within a national policy framework. It treats technology not as a subject to be studied in isolation, but as a tool to be woven into the entire fabric of schooling – from classroom teaching and assessment to school management and community engagement.

The policy recommends that ICT implementation in school education use free and open technologies, including Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and Open Educational Resources (OER), with a conscious aim for sustainability so that schools can continue integrating ICT beyond the initial investment period. This is significant: it signals a deliberate move away from proprietary, expensive systems toward approaches that are scalable and publicly owned.

Key guidelines for schools 🔗

The policy establishes several practical directions for schools and states to follow:

Infrastructure development: States and UTs are encouraged to optimise the numbers of tablets, laptops, PCs, and notebooks, committing to Annual Maintenance Contracts for a minimum period of five years and integrating ICT labs extensively into school timetables.

Curriculum integration: All Examination Boards in the country are encouraged to offer ICT-related subjects in an integrated way up to Class X and as electives at the higher secondary stage. This ensures that digital literacy is not siloed into a single “computer class” but becomes a cross-curricular competency.

Teacher capacity: Recognising that teachers can be especially challenged by new configurations of teaching and learning, the policy emphasises professional development as the primary strategy for addressing the need to fully integrate technology into learner-centred pedagogical practices. The UNESCO Guidelines for ICT in Education Policies similarly affirm that changing teacher behaviour is the most critical factor in any successful ICT policy implementation.

Digital content creation: State Institutes of Educational Technology (SIETs) are expected to play a proactive role in developing and sharing digital content and its source code to support wide-scale adaptations, also supporting the capacity building activities of teachers in digital content creation.

National Education Policy 2020: key recommendations for digital learning 🔗

While the 2012 ICT Policy laid the groundwork, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 significantly raised the ambition. Launched with a firm emphasis on a forward-looking relationship between technology and education, NEP 2020 focuses on integrating digital infrastructure and digital educational content, enhancing teacher capabilities, digital skilling, and inclusive education.

NEP 2020 envisions an extensive use of technology in teaching and learning – removing language barriers, increasing access for Divyang students, and supporting educational planning and management, with educational technology playing an important role in the improvement of educational processes and outcomes.

The National Educational Technology Forum (NETF) 🔗

One of NEP 2020’s most distinctive structural proposals is the creation of the National Educational Technology Forum (NETF). The NETF is envisaged as a platform for the free exchange of ideas on the use of technology to enhance learning, assessment, planning, and administration for both school and higher education. It is meant to guide evidence-based decision-making on technology adoption – ensuring that schools are not simply handed hardware, but receive pedagogically sound guidance on how to use it.

Core technology initiatives under NEP 2020 🔗

NEP 2020 has recommended key initiatives including: conducting pilot studies for online education; investing in creating digital infrastructure; promoting appropriate online teaching-learning platforms; creating e-contents and digital repositories; addressing the digital divide; leveraging technology for virtual labs; training teachers and incentivising their digital literacy; using online exams and assessments including for 21st-century skills; emphasising blended learning; and developing educational software in all major Indian languages.

The policy also calls for open, interoperable, and evolvable public digital infrastructure that can serve India’s scale and diversity – a recognition that no single platform or vendor can meet the country’s educational needs alone. A digital repository of content, including learning games, simulations, augmented reality, and virtual reality tools, is to be developed, along with a public rating system for users to assess effectiveness and quality. Mass media such as television and radio will also be extensively used for educational broadcasts available 24/7 in different languages.

Bridging the digital divide: government initiatives to make technology accessible 🔗

Policy ambition means little without ground-level execution. The stark reality of India’s digital divide makes this especially pressing. The 75th round of the NSS survey showed that only 4.4% of rural households have access to computers, compared to 23.4% in urban areas. Similarly, only 14.9% of rural households have internet access, compared to 42% of urban households. These numbers make it clear that policy frameworks must be accompanied by targeted interventions.

DIKSHA: one nation, one digital platform 🔗

In September 2017, the government introduced DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing), a national portal for school education, to offer school curriculum-based engaging learning materials to students, teachers, and parents, supporting over 18 Indian languages and implemented by 35 states and UTs. As of December 2024, DIKSHA hosts over 80,000 learning resources in 36 languages, serves 50+ million users monthly, and has facilitated over 600 million learning sessions. Teacher training modules on the platform have reached over 4.2 million teachers through 1,200+ courses.

PM eVIDYA: multi-modal access for all 🔗

PM eVidya is an innovative initiative by the Ministry of Education to sustain education by leveraging ICT, offering multifarious educational resources in multi-platform mode – digital and online, through DTH TV channels, community radio, and content for children with special needs. Operating on the principle of “One Nation, One Digital Platform” and “One Class, One Channel,” PM eVidya ensures that every student, regardless of geography or socioeconomic background, has access to quality digital education – with regional language broadcasts and special provisions for students with disabilities, including sign language content.

SWAYAM and SWAYAM Prabha 🔗

In 2017, the government launched SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) to offer an integrated platform for online courses, hosting MOOCs for students from Class 9 to post-graduation levels. SWAYAM Prabha, a group of 34 DTH channels, broadcasts educational programmes 24×7, extending reach to areas with limited internet connectivity. SWAYAM offers over 2,000 courses, with approximately 1.5 crore students enrolled by 2020, with its credit recognition and affordability aligning with NEP 2020’s goals of flexibility and inclusivity.

The gap that still remains 🔗

Despite these efforts, implementation gaps persist. The digital divide between urban and rural areas remains stark – while urban schools may have access to computers, high-speed internet, and ICT tools, rural schools often lack even basic infrastructure, a disparity exacerbated by socioeconomic factors during events like the COVID-19 pandemic. Investing in infrastructure to ensure all schools have electricity, internet, and functional ICT tools, developing localised content in multiple Indian languages, and providing comprehensive teacher training remain the most critical areas for meaningful ICT integration.

Future of tech in education: trends and policy directions 🔗

The next frontier of educational technology policy in India – and globally – is artificial intelligence. India plans to implement an AI curriculum across all schools starting from Grade 3, beginning with the 2026-27 academic year, aligned with NEP 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023, with learning materials, teacher guides, and digital content to be completed by December 2025.

CBSE has introduced AI as a subject for students in Classes IX to XII and has partnered with IBM to launch the SkillsBuild Programme, which includes orientation sessions on generative AI. From the 2025-26 sessions, the CISCE board has also introduced robotics and AI as part of its curriculum.

The IndiaAI Mission and AI in classrooms 🔗

The IndiaAI Mission, launched in 2024, aims to democratise AI education, improve data quality, develop local AI skills, attract talent, foster industry collaboration, and promote ethical AI. In the Union Budget 2025-26, INR 2,000 crore was allocated to the IndiaAI Mission – a dramatic increase from the previous year’s allocation.

A December 2024 UNICEF India multi-stakeholder consultation on digital learning in New Delhi focused on leveraging AI technologies like Generative AI and AR/VR for education, with speakers emphasising both the speed of AI adoption and the need for ethical AI guidelines to ensure inclusivity and accessibility for all learners.

Blended learning and personalisation 🔗

The policy direction is increasingly towards blended learning – a hybrid of in-person instruction and digital resources – rather than wholesale replacement of the classroom. NEP 2020 envisions a technology-enabled education system that enhances the learning experience, facilitates personalised learning, and bridges the digital divide, with digital education as an integral part of the curriculum focused on developing digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

At the same time, the UNICEF India 2025 brief on AI and human agency is clear that technology should amplify – not replace – the teacher-student relationship. The human element of education cannot be overlooked, and technology can only serve as an auxiliary tool to amplify the learning experience. Policy must therefore ensure that digital tools are accompanied by trained, supported, and motivated educators – because the best infrastructure in the world cannot substitute for a skilled and engaged teacher.

India’s national policies on ICT in education represent a genuine and evolving commitment to making digital learning equitable, sustainable, and pedagogically grounded. From the foundational 2012 ICT Policy to NEP 2020’s ambitious AI and blended learning vision, the direction is clear – but the distance between policy intent and classroom reality remains a challenge that demands continued attention from policymakers, educators, and communities alike.

What do you think? As AI and personalised learning move to the centre of education policy, how should teacher training programmes evolve to prepare educators for technology-integrated classrooms? And given the persistent urban-rural digital divide, what policy mechanisms do you think would most effectively ensure that national ICT initiatives reach the students who need them most?

References

1. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000380926
2. https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf
3. https://shikshan.org/nep-2020/online-digital-education-technology/
4. https://www.unicef.org/india/blog/ai-and-human-agency-indias-role-shaping-future-learning