Building Bridges: Technology and Traditions (Part 3)

This is the final part of the series of “EdTech in India: A Journey of Promise, Disruption, and Discovery”

My father, a civil engineer, often says—technology is but an enabler. Computers can draft the most exquisite blueprints, but if the site engineer miscalculates or the labourer lays the bricks carelessly, the entire edifice will crumble. And when disaster strikes, it is not a machine that salvages, but a person.

I, a computer science engineer by training, have fought him on this, countless times. Surely, in the grand scheme of things, technology mattered more? Alas! The pandemic proved otherwise—not just in construction, but in education. And just like that, one more learning on the way – just because a dad becomes silent in front of a daughter, doesn’t mean he is wrong!! 

The great EdTech gold rush of the pandemic era is over. The dust has settled, revealing not the utopia we all thought of, but a landscape filled with miscalculations, false hopes, and a few shining victories.

It is time to take stock—The Grand Dream: What Was Predicted vs. What Actually Happened.

• The Death of Traditional Classrooms? – Not even close. The physical classroom stands unshaken, irreplaceable in fostering collaboration, social learning, and the silent wisdom exchanged in a glance between teacher and student.

• The Rise of the AI Teacher? – Lovely to hear, difficult to execute. Algorithms may grade essays and personalize recommendations, but they do not see the furrowed brow of a struggling child or sense the subtle shift in motivation. AI, for all its brilliance, cannot replace the human instinct that spots learning gaps much before they turn into data.

• A Global Educational Marketplace? Yes—but mostly for professionals. The dream of universally accessible, world-class schooling for children remains just that: a dream.

• The Death of Textbooks? – On the contrary, textbooks stood their ground. Screens strained eyes, attention spans withered, and more recently, in Sweden, policymakers abandoned digital-first classrooms, rediscovering the power of print.

• The Power of Data? Useful, but within limits. Education is not a war; parents do not need hourly updates on their child’s academic conquests. Education is about people who have good days, bad days, tempers and illnesses, and learning is always influenced by these countours.

• The Promise of Continuous Learning?Yes, but at a cost—an arms race of certifications that has blurred expertise.

This is where we stand today, at the intersection of what was foretold and what transpired. Now, let us journey deeper into each educational stage, to understand the man vs. machine saga.

Early Childhood: The Human Foundation

Picture a preschool classroom. A child wrestles with their shoelaces, fingers fumbling. A teacher kneels, guiding them patiently, voice warm, touch reassuring. Now, picture the same lesson on a screen. It fails utterly.

Early childhood education is not about rote knowledge—it is about touch, voice, trust.

Technology has no business in child-facing early education.

It can assist teachers, provide insights, streamline administration—but it cannot replace the irreplaceable.

K-12: The Classroom Prevails

For years, schools invested in technology, believing it would revolutionize learning. The pandemic brought clarity—screens are a poor substitute for classrooms.

Remember those online math lessons where students sat passively, cameras off, pretending to listen? Or science experiments reduced to lifeless animations? Yet, Khan Academy thrived because it mirrored how teachers actually teach—concept, example, doubt-clearing, repetition. The human element, albeit virtual, remained intact.

Technology can enhance classrooms, but as a standalone replacement, it lacks the serendipity of real learning—the spark of a spontaneous discussion due to a raised hand, the silent acknowledgment between teacher and student that more explanation is needed.

Higher Education: The Balanced Victory

Universities fared better. Perhaps, because technology was looked at like an ally. Not as a conquerer.

Students, by this age, naturally understand how they learn best, even though they might not necessarily be able to articulate it well. Some dive into scholarly articles, others seek video explanations, interactive quizzes, or even short-form content. They assemble knowledge like master craftsmen, picking the tools that best suit their needs.

Virtual labs, interactive museum experiences, and cross-border learning flourished. The campus remained—but its walls expanded, no longer a constraint but a choice.

Professional Education: The Signaling Paradox

The explosion of online certifications created a strange dilemma. Suddenly, data scientists were studying marketing, engineers were learning business strategy, and sales professionals were acquiring coding skills. Traditionally when someone acquires a certificate of something its signals that the person is ready to invest their time and effort into learning something that is of value to them and they are good in the field but the same signalling cannot be held true if the learner has a wide basket of assortments search as data science, project management, coding, etc., etc.

This was not a failure—it was a sign of hunger, of ambition. But when everyone holds a certificate, what does it mean? The job market became noisy, and bloated with credentials that did not necessarily translate into skill. And that’s exactly that has happened in the job market today.

EdTech’s greatest success in professional learning is not in the mere issuance of certificates, but in ensuring that those certificates mean something.

Teachers: The Digital Age Warriors

Perhaps the greatest surprise of the pandemic was this: teachers rose far beyond expectations.

For decades, they were underestimated. “They’re just teaching kids,” people scoffed. “How hard can it be?”

Then came the lockdowns. Parents—corporate executives, Ivy League graduates, top consultants—found themselves teaching their own children. And they struggled. And for the first time, the world understood: teaching is a skill, an art, a science. It cannot be reduced to slides and videos.

This is why, post-pandemic, the most meaningful use of EdTech has been in teacher training. Product companies no longer seek to bypass teachers—they seek to empower them. Because every improvement in teacher training multiplies impact, reaching students a hundredfold more effectively than direct intervention.

So, with all these observations, one may ask—where has technology truly proven its worth? To them, I say:

• In administration, technology has lifted a huge burden off educators—reducing paperwork, simplifying processes, and allowing them to focus on what truly matters: teaching. Communication, once slow and bureaucratic, is now seamless—platforms like WhatsApp and digital tools ensure that parents, teachers, and students remain connected.
• In learning itself, virtual labs and simulations have transformed the way students engage with complex subjects. No, they don’t replace hands-on experience, but they make learning deeper, more interactive, and more accessible. And that matters.
• Access to quality resources has changed beyond recognition. A student today isn’t limited to what’s in their textbook; knowledge is everywhere, available instantly. The best education systems embrace this, using technology to supplement—not replace—traditional learning.
• Assessments, too, have evolved. Multiple test formats, better proctoring, stronger safeguards against malpractice—technology hasn’t created a perfect system, but it has made malpractices harder and evaluation more effective. Let’s be honest: the old ways weren’t flawless either.
• And then there’s the global marketplace of learning. Today, students can access lectures from the best minds across the world. They can take specialized courses, build industry-relevant skills, and learn at their own pace. But let’s be clear—there are limits. A surgeon can’t learn to operate through a screen, nor can an engineer master their craft without real-world experience. The best institutions understand this, using technology to teach theory while keeping hands-on learning in the real world.
• For teachers, technology has been an enabler, not a threat. It helps track student progress, share best practices across geographies, and connect educators in ways that were once unimaginable. The role of the teacher remains central—what’s changed is the support they have at their disposal.

Most solutions that emerged during or after COVID chased universal digitization, sought to replace trained educators, and prioritized alternative, non-traditional models. But parents, children, schools and governments,  through choices that spoke louder than words, made their stance clear—leading to the quiet yet undeniable collapse of many EdTech providers.

Let’s be clear: technology in education isn’t about replacing teachers, tradition, or the human touch. It is about enabling them to do more, to do better, and to reach further.

Technology must ensure that every learner, regardless of background, has access to the best opportunities possible, so that in turn, he or she must do their best. 

That is the challenge before us, and that is the opportunity we must seize.