Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday tabled the Economic Survey 2025-26 in Parliament, with the document flagging various loopholes in rural education, despite the adequate resources being made available.
Smartphone access in rural India is no longer the barrier it once was, but converting that connectivity into learning outcomes is now the bigger challenge, according to the Economic Survey.
Citing findings from ASER 2024, the Survey said 89.1% of rural youth aged 14–16 have smartphone access at home, a number that underlines how quickly digital devices have spread across households beyond cities.
However, the Survey also pointed to a clear behaviour gap in how these phones are used. Among rural youth who can use a smartphone, over half use digital platforms for education, but around 75% use them for social media.
The Survey’s framing is direct: India now has a large base of device access, but the education system must ensure that digital exposure turns into stronger learning and skills, not just screen time.
The Survey’s reading is that this gap between access and academic use is now the real digital education challenge. With smartphones already reaching most rural households, the focus shifts to building stronger learning habits, guiding students toward quality educational content, and ensuring schools and teachers can integrate digital tools in a structured way so screen time translates into measurable learning gains.
The Economic Survey places this push within a broader human capital agenda, linking school education reforms to India’s long-term productivity goals under Viksit Bharat @2047, especially since a large share of India’s population will remain school-age for decades.
It also highlights that the focus in India’s education story must shift from enrolment alone to learning outcomes, with stronger monitoring and measurement systems to identify gaps early and improve foundational learning.
To build that accountability loop, the Survey points to expanding systems such as Vidya Samiksha Kendras, designed to monitor learning outcomes and support timely interventions for students.
Economic Survey’s digital classroom reality check: phones are everywhere, study time isn’t
