AI & Learning: A Preferred Future
Dr. Venkat Srinivasan, March 2022
Rapid progress in AI technologies has generated considerable interest in their potential to address challenges in every field and education is no exception. Improving learning outcomes and providing relevant education to all have been dominant themes universally, both in the developed and developing world. And they have taken on greater significance in the current era of technology-driven personalization.
Learning outcomes have however stagnated in the U.S. and have remained relatively low in the developing world. In their 2020 annual letter, Bill and Melinda Gates point out that despite spending billions they have not seen the kind of progress they expected with learning outcomes in k-12 education in public schools (CNBC, 2020). In India, each year, the Annual Status of Education report reports in India’s public schools, a 5th grader is unable to read 2nd grade text (ASER, 2019). Recently, the Central Square Foundation (Central Square Foundation, 2020) found that learning outcomes in private schools in India, while better compared to public schools, are still poor – 35% of rural private school students in Grade 5 cannot read a grade 2 level paragraph.