The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a $10 million financing package with Schoolnet India Limited (SIL) to expand digital learning infrastructure in government schools across India. The agreement, ADB’s first private sector financing for a digital education project in the country, aims to improve learning outcomes for 4.5 million students by bringing technology-enabled classrooms to 30,000 government schools. The project directly addresses the persistent digital infrastructure gap in Indian schools, where only one in four schools currently has a computer laboratory.
What Is the Schoolnet Digital Learning Project?
The Schoolnet Digital Learning Project is a targeted initiative to bring digital infrastructure and teacher training to government schools that currently lack access to technology-enabled learning. The project is implemented by Schoolnet India Limited, an Indian education technology company with over 25 years of experience in delivering digital solutions to K-12 schools, and is financed by ADB through a $10 million package.
The project’s core premise is simple: schools cannot deliver digital education without computers, smart classrooms, and teachers trained to use them. The Schoolnet Digital Learning Project tackles all three gaps simultaneously by bundling hardware installation, software deployment, and large-scale teacher training into a single comprehensive programme.
Key Targets and Deliverables
The project has set concrete targets across three areas: physical infrastructure, digital classrooms, and teacher capacity building.
| Deliverable | Target |
|---|---|
| Government schools covered | 30,000 |
| Students benefited | 4.5 million |
| Digital classrooms set up | 58,000 |
| Schools receiving computer laboratories | At least 1,000 |
| Teachers trained in digital pedagogy | At least 56,000 |
The project goes beyond just installing equipment. It includes training teachers on how to use digital tools effectively in the classroom and delivering learning materials designed to promote inclusive, safe, and equitable teaching practices. This emphasis on teacher training is critical, as studies show that providing devices alone does not improve learning outcomes unless teachers can use them confidently.
The Digital Infrastructure Gap in Indian Schools
India’s education sector has seen rapid growth in enrolment and school infrastructure over the past two decades, but digital readiness remains a weak spot. According to the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2023-24 data, only 26% of K-12 schools in India have computer laboratories and just 29% are equipped with smart classrooms.
The gap is even wider in government schools compared to private ones. Only 43.5% of government schools have computers for teaching, against 70.9% in private unaided schools. Internet connectivity, a prerequisite for digital learning, reaches just 24.4% of all schools with functional computers.
These numbers mean that while India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 envisions technology-enabled learning as a cornerstone of modern education, most government school classrooms simply do not have the basic tools to make that vision a reality. The Schoolnet Digital Learning Project is designed to bridge exactly this gap.
Who Are the Key Players?
Three entities come together to make this project possible: ADB as the financier, Schoolnet India Limited as the implementing partner, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as the funding source behind half of the financing.
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
The Asian Development Bank is a multilateral development bank established in 1966 with its headquarters in Manila, Philippines. It is owned by 69 member countries, 50 of which are from the Asia and Pacific region. India is a founding member and the fourth largest shareholder.
ADB provides loans, technical assistance, grants, and equity investments to promote social and economic development in the region. This financing package is notable because it marks ADB’s first private sector investment in a digital education project in India.
The ADB Country Director for India, Mio Oka, stated that the investment aims to drive digital transformation in education and promote high-quality, inclusive learning by supporting private sector providers.
Schoolnet India Limited (SIL)
Schoolnet India Limited is one of India’s leading education technology service providers, founded in 1997 and headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The company has worked with over 100,000 schools across 30 states and union territories in India and reaches 25 million students and teachers.
Schoolnet offers an ecosystem of digital solutions including smart classrooms, AI-based learning apps (such as Geneo), learning management systems, and teacher training programmes. It has previously partnered with governments in Gujarat, Jharkhand, Assam, and Delhi, among others, to implement large-scale digital education projects.
The company’s Managing Director and CEO is RCM Reddy, a former IAS officer.
LEAP 2 and JICA
The financing package of $10 million is structured as a loan, of which $5 million comes from Leading Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund 2 (LEAP 2). LEAP 2 is an ADB-managed fund capitalized with a $1.5 billion commitment from JICA. Established in December 2023, LEAP 2 is the successor to the original LEAP fund (2016-2023) and focuses on financing high-quality, sustainable private sector infrastructure projects across Asia and the Pacific.
The fund supports projects that reduce carbon emissions, improve energy efficiency, and expand access to affordable healthcare, education, and telecommunications. The Schoolnet project aligns with LEAP 2’s mandate by addressing gaps in digital education infrastructure.
Alignment with National Education Policy 2020
The project is explicitly aligned with India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which was launched on 29 July 2020 as a comprehensive framework to overhaul the country’s education system. NEP 2020 replaced the 34-year-old National Policy on Education of 1986.
Among its many goals, NEP 2020 emphasizes technology-enabled learning as a core pedagogical tool, digital literacy as a foundational skill for all students, equitable access to quality education regardless of socioeconomic background, and teacher training in digital pedagogy and continuous professional development.
The Schoolnet Digital Learning Project directly advances each of these objectives. By installing computer laboratories and digital classrooms, it provides the physical infrastructure that NEP 2020’s digital vision requires. By training 56,000 teachers in digital pedagogy, it builds the human capacity needed to make that infrastructure effective in daily classroom use.
The project also aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), which calls for inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Why This Agreement Matters
This financing agreement is significant for several reasons. First, it marks ADB’s entry into private sector digital education financing in India, signalling that the bank sees education technology as a viable sector for private investment. This could open the door for more multilateral funding to flow into India’s edtech space.
Second, the project’s focus on government schools addresses the equity gap in Indian education. While private schools have steadily adopted digital tools, government schools, which serve the majority of India’s students, have lagged far behind. By specifically targeting government schools, the project helps level the playing field.
Third, the inclusion of teacher training as a core component reflects a mature understanding of how technology works in classrooms. Simply installing smart boards or computers without training teachers on how to integrate them into lessons has been a recurring failure of education technology projects worldwide. The Schoolnet project makes teacher capacity building a mandatory, quantified deliverable.
Fourth, the project leverages concessional financing through LEAP 2, which allows JICA, through ADB, to support high-impact social infrastructure projects that may not offer immediate commercial returns but deliver long-term development benefits.
Key Takeaways
- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $10 million financing package with Schoolnet India Limited for digital learning in Indian government schools.
- The project is ADB’s first private sector financing for a digital education project in India.
- It will set up 58,000 digital classrooms across 30,000 government schools, directly benefiting 4.5 million students.
- At least 1,000 schools will receive computer laboratories, and 56,000 teachers will be trained in digital pedagogy.
- Half the funding ($5 million) comes from LEAP 2, an ADB-managed fund capitalized with $1.5 billion by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
- ADB was established in 1966, is headquartered in Manila, Philippines, and is owned by 69 member countries.
- Schoolnet India Limited, founded in 1997, has reached over 100,000 schools in India and seven other countries.
