Teachers’ Perceptions and Use of Government-Led Digital Learning Initiatives in Rural Schools: Evidence from India

Abstract

Digital learning is frequently posed as a means of enhancing access, continuity, and inclusion. Nevertheless, its application is not even in resource-restricted school environments. It is against this background that the paper examines the awareness, perceptions, and usage by rural teachers in India, specifically PM eVIDYA and DIKSHA, a government led digital initiative. Based on the data in interviews, it examines the way these initiatives are in fact adopted in classroom practice. What is passed through is a little ambivalent. Teachers, most of the time, agree on the pedagogical usefulness of digital tools, but they are more selective and prone to use the formal platforms as supplements. The digital resources are often supplemented to the already existing techniques instead of transforming them in most situations. This trend appears to be tightly linked to the contextual factors, such as the lack of infrastructure, gaps in the sustained training, inequitable access at home, and, in some cases, partial awareness of the larger digital ecosystem. Simultaneously, the teachers are not bound by these conditions. They adapt. Others are self-learners, and others have incorporated both digital and traditional techniques in a manner that may not seem overwhelming to their contexts. These responses, though practical, also hint at the limits of top-down implementation. Taken together, the study suggests that the success of public digital initiatives depends on more than platform availability. The support of teachers and consideration of local realities appear to be no less needed and even more.