Education in India

India doesn’t run one education system. It runs several overlapping tracks at once: school policy, higher education oversight, and now a fast-moving push to teach AI itself.

Four Tracks, One System

GK0080

School Policy

NEP 2020 sets the national framework. Vidyanjali brings community and private-sector volunteers into government schools.

Higher Education Oversight

Universities of India spans central, state, and deemed universities. A parallel effort tracks and flags fake, unrecognised institutions.

AI in the Classroom

A dedicated Computational Thinking and AI curriculum reaches Classes III-VIII from 2026-27. AI Centres of Excellence build the underlying models.

AI Skilling

SOAR trains students in Classes 6-12 and teachers directly, outside the core curriculum, through the Skill India Digital Hub.

Not one ladder: these four tracks run in parallel, overseen by different bodies, on different timelines, toward different goals.

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Must Know

• India’s education landscape runs on four broad, parallel tracks: school policy, higher education oversight, AI in the core curriculum, and AI skilling outside it.
• The National Education Policy 2020 is India’s overarching school and higher-education reform framework. See IndSoc0041 — National Education Policy 2020 for the full policy.
• Vidyanjali is a government scheme bringing community and private-sector volunteers into government schools. See IndGov0021 — Vidyanjali for how it works.
• India’s universities span central, state, deemed, and private institutions. See GK0018 — Universities of India for that landscape, and GK0079 — Fake Universities in India for the regulatory crackdown on unrecognised institutions.
• The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are India’s flagship engineering institutions, each an Institute of National Importance. See GK0081 — Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) for their full history and structure.
• AI Centres of Excellence build the underlying technology that now feeds into school curricula. See SciTech0044 — AI Centres of Excellence in India.
• SWAYAM is the Government of India’s free online course platform, offering courses from school level through postgraduate study. See IndGov0071 — SWAYAM for its full structure, National Coordinators, and current affairs.

Good to Know

• These four tracks aren’t ranked against each other, and they don’t share one timeline. A school-policy reform, a university accreditation rule, and an AI curriculum mandate can all move at completely different speeds.
• School education in India is largely a state subject, under the Constitution’s Concurrent List. Central bodies like NCERT and CBSE set frameworks, but implementation varies by state.
• NCERT designs the national curriculum framework. CBSE is the largest school board that follows it, though many states run their own boards too.
• Higher education oversight involves multiple regulators, not one. The University Grants Commission (UGC) oversees universities generally, while professional fields like engineering and medicine have their own separate regulators.
• India’s basic 10+2+3 school structure, and its three-language formula, both date back to the 1964-66 Kothari Commission. See SciTech0090 — Daulat Singh Kothari for that history.
• AI’s arrival in Indian education is happening on two separate tracks at once: inside the formal curriculum, and through standalone skilling programmes that sit outside it entirely.

Test Yourself

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1. From which academic year does the Computational Thinking and AI curriculum for Classes III-VIII apply?

2026-27

2025-26

2027-28

2024-25

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Great to Know

• Splitting AI education into a formal curriculum track and a separate skilling track is a deliberate choice, not duplication. The curriculum reaches every student in a board’s system, on a fixed pace. Skilling programmes can move faster and reach students outside that system too, including in less-resourced schools.
• A regulatory crackdown on fake universities and a curriculum rollout for cutting-edge AI skills might look unrelated. Both are really about the same underlying problem: matching a credential, or a skill, to what it actually claims to represent.
• This hub collects India’s major education institutions and policies in one place. Read the linked articles above for full treatment of each track.

Current Affairs

• 5 August 2026: The government confirms, in a Rajya Sabha reply, that NCERT and CBSE have launched a dedicated Computational Thinking and AI curriculum for Classes III to VIII, effective academic year 2026-27. A Grades 9-12 AI curriculum has also been finalised. Teacher Handbooks and Facilitator Guides are published on CBSE’s academic portal. (Source: NE India Broadcast)
• Separately, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has launched SOAR (Skilling for AI Readiness). It offers three progressive 15-hour student modules, AI to Aware, AI to Acquire, and AI to Aspire, for Classes 6 to 12, plus a 45-hour “AI for Educators” module for teachers. The modules cover AI basics, generative AI, ethics, cybersecurity, and career paths, delivered through the Skill India Digital Hub. Given by MoS Education Jayant Chaudhary, written Rajya Sabha reply, 5 August 2026. (Source: PIB)
• 22 July 2026: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan opened a two-day Conclave of State and UT Education Ministers, in New Delhi.
  • The conclave reviewed centrally sponsored schemes — Samagra Shiksha, PM SHRI, NIPUN Bharat, PM POSHAN, and ULLAS.
  • Pradhan called the Centre and states “equal partners,” and urged promoting mother-tongue instruction and multilingualism.
  • He said the deliberations would feed into an upcoming PRAGATI review, chaired by PM Modi.
  (Source: The Tribune)
• 10 July 2026: Minister Jayant Chaudhary said classrooms today must be designed around the jobs of tomorrow. He was speaking on aligning education with employment needs, under the PM-SETU skilling scheme. (Source: PIB)
• 8 July 2026: The Education Ministry released AISHE reports for 2022-23 and 2023-24. AISHE stands for the All India Survey on Higher Education. Over 90% of registered institutions took part in both survey years. (Source: PIB)
• Enrolment touched a record 4.50 crore, in 2023-24. The Gross Enrolment Ratio rose from 29.5 in 2022-23, to 30.0 in 2023-24. Female GER reached 31.2 in 2023-24, ahead of the male rate. The Gender Parity Index stood at 1.08. (Source: PIB)
• 7 July 2026: The Ministry of Education releases the Performance Grading Index 2.0 for States/UTs (PGI-S) and the Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D), both for 2025-26. PGI-S grades States and UTs across 70 indicators worth 1,000 points. PGI-D extends this to the district level, across 70 indicators worth 600 points. (Source: PIB)
• Both indices draw on the same underlying data. This includes the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024, and other government portals. In 2025-26, 473 districts improved their PGI-D score compared to 2024-25, with 89 moving up a full grade level.
• The same day, the Ministry released its UDISE+ 2025-26 report. It covers 14.67 lakh schools, nearly 24.72 crore students, and 1,02,73,020 teachers — an 8.3% rise from 2022-23. (Source: PIB)
• Secondary-level dropout fell from 8.2% in 2024-25 to 7.0% in 2025-26. The secondary Gross Enrolment Ratio rose from 68.5% to 71.7% over the same year.
• Secondary-level retention also improved, from 47.2% to 51.9%. The secondary-level Pupil-Teacher Ratio now stands at 21, well within NEP 2020’s recommended 30:1 ceiling.
• 3 August 2026: The Supreme Court, disposing of review petitions, extended the deadline for pre-2013 school teachers to acquire the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) qualification from 31 August 2027 to 31 August 2028.
  • The Court had earlier ruled, on 1 September 2025, that TET is a mandatory minimum qualification under Section 23 of the RTE Act, 2009, for appointment as a teacher in schools covered by the Act.
  • The Court also recommended that TET be held twice a year, with roughly a six-month gap between consecutive exams, to give eligible teachers adequate opportunity to qualify. Given by Education Minister Pralhad Joshi in a Lok Sabha starred reply.
  (Source: PIB)
• 1 August 2026: Union Health Minister JP Nadda reviewed preparedness for NEET-PG 2026, scheduled for 30 August, with 2,73,183 candidates registered, over 12.5% more than the previous year.
  • The exam will run in a single shift across about 340 cities and 1,300-plus centres, with more than 60,000 functionaries deployed. Candidates must give three state preferences, with their correspondence state as the mandatory first choice, to get a centre closer to home.
  • The exam pattern was revised to give candidates more time per question: 180 questions in 210 minutes. Test-city intimation slips will be issued nearly three weeks in advance, and both Aadhaar-based and iris-based biometric authentication will verify candidates.
  (Source: PIB)
• The last date to apply for the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS) 2026-27, for meritorious students from economically weaker sections after Class 8, is 31 August 2026, on the National Scholarship Portal.
  • Institute-level verification closes 15 September 2026, and district-level verification closes 30 September 2026.
  (Source: Free Press Journal)
• The same day, the government told the Lok Sabha that the UGC has issued 5 Letters of Approval and 16 Letters of Intent to 15 foreign universities to set up campuses in India, from the UK, Australia, the USA, and Italy.
  • Three foreign university campuses are already running classes: Deakin University and the University of Wollongong at GIFT City, Gujarat, and the University of Southampton at Gurugram.
  (Source: PIB)
• 5 August 2026: MoS Education Sukanta Majumdar told the Rajya Sabha that UGC has identified 32 fake universities operating across India, up from 21 two years earlier.
  • Delhi tops the list with 12 fake universities. Four states, Haryana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, and Arunachal Pradesh, appear on the list for the first time. Degrees from these institutions are invalid for both jobs and further education.
  (Source: PIB)
• 4 August 2026: Online registration opened for the 7th phase of Yuva Sangam, a MY Bharat-Education Ministry programme that sends youth on cross-cultural exchange visits between different regions of India. (Source: PIB)
• 29 July 2026: MoS Education Jayant Chaudhary told the Rajya Sabha about progress under the NIPUN Bharat Mission, launched 5 July 2021 to ensure every child achieves foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) by the end of Class 2.
  • Vidya Pravesh, a play-based, 3-month school-readiness module for Class 1, has benefited over 5 crore students across 8.8 lakh schools since 2022-23.
  • Jadui Pitara, a kit of 53 play-based learning materials for the 3-6 age group launched 20 February 2023, has been translated into 22 languages, alongside a mobile-based e-Jadui Pitara launched 10 February 2024.
  • Foundational primers have been developed in 121 local languages, each spoken by at least 10,000 people. On DIKSHA, the government’s teacher-training platform, 15.57 lakh-plus users have completed FLN and early-childhood training, with content now in 133 languages.
  (Source: PIB)
• 27 July 2026: The government told the Lok Sabha that 1,12,817 collateral-free, guarantor-free PM-Vidyalaxmi education loans, worth ₹15,634.78 crore, have been sanctioned since the scheme’s 6 November 2024 launch.
  • PM-Vidyalaxmi covers 1,425 top-ranked institutions (QHEIs), and gives a 3% interest subvention on loans up to ₹10 lakh to students from families earning up to ₹8 lakh a year, capped at 1 lakh fresh students annually.
  • The government has set aside ₹3,600 crore for interest subvention from 2024-25 to 2030-31, expected to benefit 7 lakh fresh students. The scheme’s own portal has run since 25 February 2025.
  • A PIB Backgrounder two days later added that the higher-education Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) rose from 23.7% in 2014-15 to 30.0% in 2023-24, and that PM-Vidyalaxmi received 1,10,667 loan applications in FY 2025-26, of which 70,852 were sanctioned.
  (Source: PIB)
• 23 July 2026: MoS Education Sukanta Majumdar closed the two-day State/UT Education Ministers’ Conference, saying NEP 2020 is shaping an inclusive, skill-centric, future-ready education system.
  • He stressed the importance of PM POSHAN and Tithi Bhojan for improving nutrition among marginalised children, and urged states to keep strengthening school education around quality, equity, and inclusion.
  • Day two focused on Samagra Shiksha and PM POSHAN under the PRAGATI platform, with presentations from senior officials on PM SHRI, ULLAS, inclusive education, and skill education.
  (Source: PIB)
• 30 June 2026: The Supreme Court-constituted National Task Force (NTF) on Mental Health of Students and Prevention of Suicides in Higher Education Institutions reported field visits to 30 HEIs across 10 States since May 2025, plus 25 stakeholder consultations.
  • The NTF was constituted by the Supreme Court on 24 March 2025. A 27 May 2026 Court order extended its deadline for a Final Report to 31 October 2026.
  • Its remit covers identifying causes of student suicides, reviewing relevant laws and policies, and recommending institutional reforms. Former Chief Statistician of India Prof. T.C.A. Anant was appointed Technical Consultant for survey-data analysis.
  (Source: PIB).
• 28 June 2026: A PIB backgrounder detailed DIKSHA’s full feature set — “One Nation, One Digital Platform” for school education, part of PM e-Vidya.
  • Launched in 2017 by NCERT and CIET, it now supports 135 languages (128 Indian, 7 foreign). It also offers QR-coded “Energised Textbooks” linking NCERT books to videos and interactives.
  • For accessibility, it offers DAISY format, text-to-speech, and Indian Sign Language videos. Teacher training runs through NISHTHA and state-specific modules, on a federated architecture where each participant manages its own content.
  (Source: PIB).