IT for Change in collaboration with Critical EdTech India (CETI), convened a day-long conference titled ‘EdTech for Equitable Education: Critical Conversations’, on Thursday, 30 October 2025 at the Infosys Science Foundation (ISF), Bengaluru.
The event brought together diverse voices - practitioners, academics, technologists, civil society organizations, and policy makers - to share field experiences, deconstruct dominant narratives, examine practices and perspectives in India’s digital education landscape, and collectively reflect on how we might envision EdTech for equitable and meaningful education.
Agenda
8:45 AM - 9:00 AM Registration
09:00 AM - 09:45 AM
Keynote Address by Jian Xi Teng, Programme Specialist for Education, UNESCO
09:45 AM - 12:30 PM
Panel 1: EdTech in Practice Organizations, corporations, and educators are experimenting with technology - from local 'smart classrooms' to state-wide repositories and global platforms. Understanding and analyzing their experiences can help build deeper insights into both possibilities and perils of integrating technology into education across diverse parameters - political, geographic, and socio-economic contexts, grades, curricular focus areas, etc. Participants in this panel will explore:
- How different programmes and models imagine EdTech for universal quality education
- The role of different stakeholders – students, educators, communities, administrators – in these initiatives
- How the implementation of these models could strengthen public education
- Key challenges faced, and possible approaches to address them
- How these models understand and address questions of scalability and sustainability, towards universal access and inclusion
09:45 AM - 11:00 AM
Panel 1 (Part A) : EdTech in Practice
Panelists:
Chitkala B C, Sikshana Foundation [Slides]
Gowri Mahesh, Learning Matters [Slides]Varun Garg, EkStep Foundation [Slides]
Moderator: Gurumurthy Kasinathan, Director and Lead - Education and Technology, IT for Change
11:00 AM - 11:15 AM Tea Break
11:15 AM - 12:30 PM
Panel 1 (Part B) : EdTech in Practice
Panelists:Balasubrahmanian S, Chrysalis [Slides]
Jayanti Dasgupta, Educational Intiatives [Slides]
Niharika Gaur, Khan Academy [Slides]
Moderator: Prof. Rajaram Sharma, Joint Director (Retd.), Central Institute of Educational Technology, NCERT
12:30 PM - 1:00 PM
Fireside Chat Anvar Sadath, CEO, Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education, Government of Kerala in conversation with Kavita Sanghvi, Director - Education, Kotak Education Foundation, about the journey, challenges and successes of implementing EdTech in Kerala’s public education system.
01:00 PM - 2:00 PM Lunch
02:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Panel 2: Where is the Ed in EdTech?
There is a need to adopt critical perspectives in engaging with EdTech policies and programs to better understand their benefits, complexities, risks, and harms. It is essential to take a step back to critically examine broader imaginaries and politics surrounding EdTech, to tease out principles that should underlie its adoption. This panel will seek to problematize EdTech by engaging with questions like:
- What are the pressing issues, concerns, tensions, and problems that surround EdTech in India today?
- What harms, inequities, or exclusions are we seeing associated with EdTech?
- What is the political economy of EdTech in India and globally?
- Who are the key actors influencing EdTech policy, and what/whose agendas are being advanced?
- How do EdTech and AI reinforce colonial mindsets?
Panelists:
Anurag Shukla, Brhat and Localism
Anil Mammen, Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Poruri Sai Rahul, FOSS United
Aishwarya Sharma, Manav Rachna University (MRU) and National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA)
Tanuja Ganu, Microsoft Research
Moderator: Dr. Mythili Ramchand, Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies
03:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Reflections for the Day by Rishi Mazumdar, Edtech Architect, QUEST Alliance