India’s schools are about to teach Artificial Intelligence (AI) from Class 3, but more than one in three of them still do not have a computer that works for teaching. An analysis of UDISE+ 2025-26 data from the Ministry of Education, published in The Hindu on 28 October 2026, finds that 5,41,851 of the country’s 14.67 lakh schools have no functional computer for classroom use.
The analysis, by Karan Babbar, Assistant Professor of Economics at XLRI Jamshedpur, and Raunak Maitra, Academic Associate at Azim Premji University, Bhopal, sets the numbers against CBSE’s new Computational Thinking and AI curriculum for Classes 3 to 8, which comes into effect from the 2026-27 session.
A year of real progress
The data shows the gap is closing quickly in places. The share of schools with a computer working for teaching rose from 57.9% in 2024-25 to 63.1% in 2025-26, roughly 72,000 more schools in a single year. In government schools, the figure went from 52.7% to 59.4%, and internet access across all schools rose from 63.5% to 67.4%.
Some of the biggest jumps came where the need was greatest:
- Bihar: 23.8% to 38.4% of schools with a functional teaching computer
- Jharkhand: 43.6% to 57.1%
- Uttar Pradesh: 51.3% to 61.8%
“Available” is not the same as “working”
While 69.9% of schools report having a computer, only 63.1% have one that can actually be used for teaching. That leaves about 1.01 lakh schools with a computer that does not work for teaching and 4.41 lakh schools with no computer at all.
The gap between reported and functional equipment is stark in several states. In Jharkhand, 81.2% of schools have a computer but only 57.1% have a working one; in Chhattisgarh the figures are 61.4% and 38.6%. In Punjab, 45.6% of government schools with Class 6 and above report an ICT lab, but only 9.8% have one that works.
Government and private schools far apart
About 74.0% of private unaided schools have a working computer for teaching, against 59.4% of government schools. The gap is widest for desktops (63.2% versus 25.5%) and laptops (44.8% versus 11.7%). Government schools lead only on working tablets (39.3% versus 14.4%), largely because of state device schemes. Only 23.0% of government schools with Class 6 and above have a functional ICT lab.
That matters because government schools carry the largest load: 11.89 crore children, or 48.1% of all school students, and 51.3 lakh teachers, half of the national teaching workforce.
Wide variation across states
Delhi, Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana and Tamil Nadu report a computer available for teaching in more than 90% of schools. At the other end, Meghalaya (17.4%) and West Bengal (24.3%) remain lowest, with little change from last year. Bihar is an outlier: 91.0% of its schools have internet but only 38.4% have a working computer, suggesting connectivity has arrived ahead of devices.
Teachers are using AI on their own phones
The authors also cite the JAN AI survey of nearly 800 government school teachers in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. It found 72% were positive about AI and 26% used it regularly. Even in schools with no computer lab, just over half of teachers use AI at least occasionally, mostly on personal phones and often without any institutional guidance.
What needs to happen next
The analysis argues that the priority should be states that are not moving, such as Meghalaya and West Bengal, and that repairing and maintaining the more than one lakh non-working computers would cost far less than buying new ones. It also calls for clear guidance to help teachers use AI safely, not just use it.
For India’s AI-in-schools push, the message is clear: the curriculum has started with thinking rather than devices, but by the time today’s Class 3 students reach Class 9, every school will need a working computer, a reliable connection and a trained teacher.
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