Data governance and EdTech in India: Disentangling norms, practices and sociotechnical imaginaries
As for many emerging economies worldwide, EdTech presents a heady mix of promises and pitfalls for India. Built and marketed as transformative tools for improving access to and quality of education, the number and scale of EdTech initiatives have grown exponentially over the last five years, spurred, in part, by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the EdTech space in India remains rife with ethical, regulatory and logistical dilemmas. Recent ‘failures’ of major EdTech start-ups, egregious marketing and selling practices, rampant commodification of children’s data and an amorphous regulatory environment have all contributed to growing anxieties about the future of EdTech in the country.
Formal instruments for data governance in India
In August 2023, the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) enacted the Digital Personal Data Protection Act. The Act details procedures for collecting and processing personal data but falls short in adequately addressing children’s data within the education sphere. While the Act explicitly prohibits “tracking or behavioural monitoring of children or targeted advertising directed at children”, it provides very little information — or guardrails — for what data can be collected in the first place, under what conditions and for what purposes.
"The EdTech space in India remains rife with ethical, regulatory and logistical dilemmas"
The Act relies on a consent-based regime, sidestepping critical questions about sectoral nuance or the minutiae of enforcing its provisions. How do we address the unique vulnerabilities of children navigating educational apps, gamified platforms and hybrid classroom environments? Who monitors and enforces compliance within the sprawling EdTech ecosystem?
Data governance and EdTech in practice
While the state is building its data protection apparatus, a parallel world of data abuse, misuse and inadvertent leakages continues to thrive in EdTech. The case of the DIKSHA platform, India’s flagship government-owned EdTech application, is instructive. Between 2020 and 2022, the peak pandemic years, sensitive data of over 600,000 students and a million teachers were openly accessible on the web. That this occurred on a government platform underscores the criticality of examining institutional capacity and accountability mechanisms.
On the private side, one of India’s leading EdTech firms, has faced multiple allegations of unethical practices. Investigations and whistleblowers have revealed that the platform used student data to aggressively target vulnerable families with predatory sales tactics, often locking them into costly subscriptions they couldn’t afford or didn’t understand.
Underlying all this is a thriving ‘dark data economy’, where student data from national entrance exams is bundled and sold to EdTech companies hungry to expand their user base. This isn’t hypothetical: it is a documented and disturbingly routine practice. In these contexts, data is not a resource for better education but rather a means to locate and profile students as part of marketing stratagems.
"Student data from national entrance exams is bundled and sold to EdTech companies hungry to expand their user base. This isn’t hypothetical."
The broader ecosystem only deepens these issues. VC-backed private EdTech is booming, with billions in funding pouring into startups despite recurring scandals. Incentives are misaligned: company valuations are pegged to the number of users, not the quality of outcomes. As a result, aggressive marketing, data extractivism and inflated success metrics have become the norm.
EdTech’s promises shift with each funding cycle. During COVID, it was all about “personalised learning,” with very little evidence to back up its efficacy. The narrative has since pivoted to AI upskilling and “learn-to-code” campaigns. The goalposts keep moving, but the model remains extractive and exclusionary. Meanwhile, India’s crumbling public education infrastructure, particularly for girls, marginalised communities and rural populations, remains underfunded and under-resourced. There are legacy gaps here that no amount of datafication or platform innovation can fix.
Sociotechnical imaginaries of EdTech and data
To understand why these patterns persist, we must consider that education remains the most viable pathway to social mobility for many parents and students. As a result, “tech-enabled” learning is seen as aspirational, even essential. Digitisation becomes synonymous with smartness and success.
In low-resource settings, where access to state services is already patchy, surrendering personal data in exchange for educational tools feels like a fair deal. Adding to this is what I call the theatrics of EdTech — the glossy marketing campaigns, celebrity endorsements, and high-stakes branding that suggest EdTech is a silver bullet.
Toward a grounded, just vision for EdTech
The disconnect between formal data governance frameworks and ground realities is hard to ignore. But closing this gap will take more than new laws or improved compliance checklists. It requires reimagining data governance as a participatory, context-sensitive process that genuinely engages students, parents and educators. We must confront difficult questions: Who benefits from datafication? Who is left out or harmed? And most importantly, who decides how data in education should be used?
If we don’t centre these questions, and the structural inequalities they expose, EdTech will continue to widen, rather than bridge, India’s education divide. But with thoughtful regulation, ethical design, and a commitment to children’s rights, we still have the opportunity to build a safe, responsible, yet future-proof educational environment.
For more, visit UNICEF Innocenti's page on good governance of children's data.
This blog was originally published on here.