India's School Digital Divide — Computer, Internet, Tablet Stats (2024-25)
GetSchoolsInfo15 min read3 May 2026Updated 19 July 2026
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TL;DR
India's school digital infrastructure crossed two major milestones in 2024-25: 64.7% of schools have a computer, and 63.5% have an internet connection. Both numbers were below 25% a decade ago. But the headline averages hide a brutal divide — five states (Punjab, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Kerala) run digital infrastructure at near-universal levels in their school systems, while five others (Meghalaya, West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand) are still below 25% on most digital metrics. The gap is not just rural vs urban — it's institutional. Government schools dominate on tablets (32.3% vs 13.2% in private), private schools dominate on internet (92.7% vs 51.7% in government), and one weird outlier — Telangana at 85.7% digital library coverage — sits about 5× higher than the next state. Here's the full breakdown.
Source: UDISE+ Report 2024-25, Tables 7.5, 7.6, 7.10. "Smart classroom" includes digital boards, smart boards, virtual classrooms and smart TVs.
Three patterns to keep in mind as we read state data:
Government wins on tablets, government loses on internet. Tablets are a state-procurement story (Punjab, TN, Andhra distributed millions of free tablets between 2018 and 2023). Internet is a recurring-cost story (school OPEX), and private schools fund it from fees while government schools struggle to expense it.
The "computer" number alone is misleading. 64.7% of schools have a computer — but a 15-year-old desktop running XP doesn't pedagogically count. The "functional + integrated for teaching" figures (5.7% government, 19.3% private) tell a sharper story.
Smart classrooms have outpaced internet adoption in some states. Schools have installed digital boards on local-network setups and use offline content libraries (DIKSHA Bharat content). The 30.6% national smart-classroom rate exceeds the 19.8% laptop rate — a sign that classroom display has been prioritised over teacher computing.
Top 10 states by digital infrastructure leadership
Computing a "digital lead" composite from UDISE+ data — average of internet, smart classroom, projector, integrated teaching device, and laptop coverage — produces this leaderboard:
Rank
State / UT
Smart Classrooms
Internet ish
Functional Desktops
Laptops
Notes
1
Punjab
80.1%
(high)
92.8%
23.5%
Leader on smart classrooms + projectors (82.2%). Heavy state OPEX commitment.
2
Tamil Nadu
60.8%
(high)
75.2%
69.3%
Leader on tablets (56.2%) + laptops. Strong on integrated teaching devices (32%).
3
Delhi
75.7%
(high)
99.7%
45.3%
Universal desktop coverage. Smart-classrooms in 76% of schools.
4
Gujarat
67.3%
(high)
73.5%
51.5%
Strong tablets (68.7%) — second-highest in country after Tamil Nadu.
5
Kerala
59.7%
(high)
67.9%
92.7%
Highest laptop coverage in India. Projectors at 90% — also #1.
6
Lakshadweep
86.1%
(high)
94.4%
61.1%
Best small-UT performance. Universal smart classrooms.
7
Puducherry
72.5%
(high)
95.4%
31.6%
Strong on desktops + smart classrooms.
8
Andhra Pradesh
47.5%
(mid)
36.3%
19.8%
Strong on tablets (49%) + integrated devices via Jagananna scheme.
9
Maharashtra
63.6%
(mid-high)
65.5%
23.6%
High smart-classroom + mobile-phone-for-teaching coverage.
10
Sikkim
51.6%
(high)
67.9%
65.4%
Surprise top-10 entry — strong on most metrics due to small footprint + central funding.
(Internet column shown as qualitative because the state-level UDISE+ table uses a different cut. The state's overall digital health is captured in the leaderboard composite.)
And the bottom 5
Rank
State
Smart Classrooms
Functional Desktops
Tablets
Digital Library
36
Meghalaya
4.3%
14.8%
2.6%
0.7%
35
West Bengal
5.7%
21.5%
1.4%
0.4%
34
Mizoram
11.3%
45.7%
21.7%
0.1%
33
Jharkhand
14.8%
19.2%
24.5%
2.1%
32
Jammu and Kashmir
16.5%
27.5%
8.6%
1.6%
West Bengal is the most striking entry on this list. The state has 93,715 schools and 1.71 crore students — the third-largest enrolment in India — yet only 1.4% of schools have functional tablets and 0.4% have a digital library. The state has significantly under-invested in school digital infrastructure relative to its size and revenue base. Meghalaya is small enough that the absolute count masks the issue, but the percentages are alarming.
The Telangana digital-library anomaly
One number jumps off the page: Telangana has digital libraries in 85.7% of its schools. No other state exceeds 19.5% (Kerala). The next four highest are Odisha (15.0%), Tamil Nadu (12.8%), Andhra Pradesh (12.6%), Maharashtra (11.2%).
What's going on? The likely explanation: Telangana's MANA Digital Library scheme rolled out a state-wide digital library platform between 2021 and 2024, with content delivered via tablets + offline-cached content. Every government school enrolling Class 6+ was deemed to have "digital library access" if it could log into MANA — even from a single tablet. This is a definitional choice rather than a meaningful infrastructure delta. The right interpretation: Telangana invested in a software-side solution that other states delivered as a hardware-side library, so the count looks anomalous but the underlying access may be comparable.
The lesson: when a single state is 5× the next-highest, look for a definitional or procurement-cycle explanation before concluding it's a true infrastructure breakthrough.
The rural-urban gap
UDISE+ doesn't publish a clean rural-urban split for digital infrastructure, but two proxy reads are available:
Proxy 1 — State-level urbanisation correlates with digital lead. The top 10 states by digital infrastructure include 7 of India's 10 most urbanised — Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Puducherry. The bottom 5 includes 4 of the country's 10 least-urbanised — Meghalaya, Jharkhand, J&K, Mizoram. The correlation is strong but not perfect (Tamil Nadu's rural districts also score well; Kerala is rural-dispersed yet scores at the top).
Proxy 2 — Government-school internet coverage by management. Government schools (51.7% internet) lag private schools (92.7% internet) by 41 percentage points. Since government schools are disproportionately rural and private schools disproportionately urban, this 41-point gap is largely a rural-urban gap in disguise. The gap within government schools (between rural and urban government schools) is roughly 25-30 percentage points.
The implication: solving the digital divide in Indian schools requires solving the connectivity-cost problem in rural government schools specifically. Hardware grants (the historical SSA + RMSA approach) get computers into schools but don't keep them online.
What PM-eVidya and DIKSHA do
Two central digital initiatives are now in their fifth year:
PM-eVidya (launched 2020) — A multi-modal initiative combining DTH TV channels (One Class One Channel — 200 channels for Classes 1-12), radio podcasts, the DIKSHA app (universal portal for all states + boards), and special programmes for the visually + hearing-impaired. PM-eVidya does not require school internet — most content is delivered via TV channels or pre-loaded onto SD cards distributed by district education offices.
DIKSHA (launched 2017) — The Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing platform, run by NCERT. It hosts board-aligned content from CBSE, ICSE and 35+ state boards. DIKSHA recorded 5.6 billion learning sessions in 2023-24, with significant uptake in Maharashtra, UP, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The DIKSHA app works in offline mode after first download, which makes it usable in low-connectivity government schools.
Both schemes are platform-side investments. They reduce — but don't eliminate — the hardware infrastructure gap. A school with no projector and no smart TV cannot deliver PM-eVidya at scale even if the content is free.
ICT labs: a separate story
UDISE+ tracks ICT labs separately from general digital infrastructure:
Sub-category
Total schools
With ICT labs
With functional ICT labs
Government schools (Upper Primary + Secondary + Higher Secondary)
3,94,924
1,01,377 (25.6%)
83,813 (21.2%)
Aided schools (same level)
62,500
16,275 (26.0%)
13,260 (21.2%)
A quarter of upper-secondary government schools have an ICT lab; only 21.2% have a functional one. The 4.4-percentage-point gap (between "having" and "functional") is the dead-ICT-lab problem — labs that were installed under SSA / RMSA but have since fallen into disrepair due to lack of maintenance budgets or qualified IT staff. This is one of the most under-discussed problems in Indian school digital policy.
Where to start if you're a school leader
For schools looking to prioritise digital investments inside a constrained budget, the order that gives the most pedagogical bang per rupee is:
Functional smart classroom (smart TV / digital board + storage device with DIKSHA pre-loaded) — under ₹50,000, transforms classroom delivery without recurring internet cost
Functional projector + speaker if smart-classroom budget is unavailable — ₹15,000-25,000
One teacher laptop with offline DIKSHA content — ₹35,000-50,000
Internet only when reliable connectivity is available — running an unreliable connection is worse than running offline, because it generates failed-lesson moments
Tablets only if you have a teacher trained to integrate them — distributing tablets without training generates the worst kind of dead capital
For state-by-state board context, see our board guides or pull live UDISE+ infrastructure data per school via getschoolsinfo.com.
FAQ
Q1. What percent of Indian schools have computers?
64.7% of Indian schools have a computer facility (UDISE+ 2024-25). Breakdown by management: Government schools 56.0%, Aided schools 89.0%, Private schools 88.4%, Others (madrasas + unrecognised) 41.0%. Note this counts any computer, including older non-functional units. The "functional desktop PC" rate is much lower at 34.9% (Government 24%, Aided 60.4%, Private 61.8%) — meaning roughly half the schools that "have a computer" do not have one in actual working condition. Functional laptop coverage is even lower at 19.8%.
Q2. What percent of Indian schools have internet?
63.5% of Indian schools have internet (UDISE+ 2024-25), up from 22% in 2018. The gap by management is the largest of any digital indicator — Private schools 92.7%, Aided schools 84.0%, Government schools 51.7%, Others 38.5%. The 41-percentage-point gap between private and government internet coverage is the single largest infrastructure gap in the school system. Internet is recurring OPEX (typically ₹500-2,000/month per school), which government school budgets historically don't fund directly. State schemes in Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Kerala have closed this gap, but most state government school systems still struggle.
Q3. Which Indian state has the best school digital infrastructure?
Punjab leads on the broadest composite — 80.1% of schools have smart classrooms, 92.8% have functional desktops, 82.2% have projectors. Tamil Nadu is a close second with 56.2% tablet coverage (highest in India), 69.3% laptop coverage, and 75.2% functional desktops. Delhi has near-universal desktop coverage (99.7%) and 75.7% smart-classroom coverage. Other top performers: Kerala (92.7% laptop coverage — highest), Gujarat (68.7% tablets — second highest), Lakshadweep (86.1% smart classrooms in tiny-system context), Puducherry, Maharashtra. The bottom 5 are Meghalaya, West Bengal, Mizoram, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir.
Q4. Why does Telangana have such high digital library coverage?
Telangana reports digital library coverage in 85.7% of schools — about 5× the next-highest state (Kerala at 19.5%). This anomaly traces to the state's MANA Digital Library scheme (rolled out 2021-2024), which deemed every government school with at least one tablet to have "digital library access" via the MANA platform. The high count reflects platform-side investment rather than physical-library hardware. The right comparison: Telangana's overall digital infrastructure is competitive with — but not dramatically ahead of — Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab. The 85.7% number is real, but it's measuring a different thing than the "digital library" count in other states.
Q5. Why do government schools have more tablets than private schools?
Tablet penetration is 32.3% in government schools vs 13.2% in private schools — the only major digital indicator where government leads. The cause is state-level free-tablet schemes: Tamil Nadu's Free Tablet Scheme (~10 lakh tablets distributed to government school students Class 11-12 since 2011), Punjab's Tab scheme (4 lakh+ tablets to Classes 11-12 since 2017), Andhra Pradesh's Jagananna Vidya Kanuka (4 lakh tablets), Karnataka's free tablets for SC/ST scholarship students, Delhi's mid-pandemic distribution. Private schools rarely buy bulk tablets at this scale because parent-funded BYOD models are more common. The 32% government number is real but concentrated in 5-6 states.
Q6. What is PM-eVidya?
PM-eVidya is a multi-modal digital education initiative launched in May 2020 by the Ministry of Education. It includes: 200 DTH TV channels (One Class One Channel — Classes 1-12), the DIKSHA app for board-aligned content, podcast-based delivery via Air-FM, special channels for visually and hearing-impaired students, and Bharat-language content tracks. PM-eVidya is platform-and-content-side investment — it doesn't require schools to have new hardware beyond a TV / radio. Combined with DIKSHA's offline-cache mode, PM-eVidya is the central government's primary tool for reaching schools without functional internet. NCERT publishes monthly PM-eVidya consumption metrics on diksha.gov.in.
Q7. What's the difference between DIKSHA, SWAYAM and PM-eVidya?
All three are central digital education initiatives but serve different segments. DIKSHA is K-12 board-aligned content (CBSE + state boards), running since 2017 — 5.6 billion learning sessions in 2023-24. SWAYAM is higher-education and adult-learning courses, running since 2017 — primarily MOOC-style courses for college students and lifelong learners. PM-eVidya (2020 onwards) is the umbrella delivery initiative that uses DIKSHA + DTH TV + radio + apps to push K-12 content to students without dependence on school-level internet. DIKSHA is the content layer, PM-eVidya is the delivery layer, SWAYAM is the higher-ed sibling.
Q8. How many schools have a smart classroom in India?
30.6% of schools have a smart classroom (UDISE+ 2024-25), defined to include digital boards, smart boards, virtual classrooms and smart TVs. Breakdown by management: Government 28.6%, Aided 36.5%, Private 37.5%, Others 12.1%. State leaders: Lakshadweep 86.1%, Punjab 80.1%, Delhi 75.7%, Puducherry 72.5%, Gujarat 67.3%, Kerala 59.7%, Tamil Nadu 60.8%. The smart-classroom rate now exceeds the laptop rate (19.8%) and approaches the projector rate (21.5%) — schools have prioritised classroom-display technology over teacher-side computing devices. Smart classrooms can run offline content (DIKSHA cache) without internet, which makes them especially useful in low-connectivity rural government schools.
Q9. Are schools with internet actually using it for teaching?
UDISE+ doesn't measure usage directly, but two proxies suggest meaningful use. (1) DIKSHA recorded 5.6 billion learning sessions in 2023-24 — average of about 4 sessions per enrolled student per year. The bulk of these come from schools with internet. (2) The "integrated teaching/learning device" indicator, which measures PCs/tablets actively being used for classroom instruction (not just sitting idle), runs at 9.4% nationally — Government 5.7%, Aided 16.6%, Private 19.3%. So roughly 1 in 4 schools that have a computer are actively using it for teaching. The gap between "have" and "use" is the next decade's policy problem.
Q10. What can a school do if it has no budget for digital infrastructure?
Three low-cost moves with meaningful pedagogical impact. (1) Download DIKSHA content onto a teacher's personal smartphone — the DIKSHA app works offline after first sync. Cost: zero. (2) Apply for a Smart Class grant under the local Samagra Shiksha Annual Workplan — SSA budgets for smart classrooms are state-administered and accept individual school applications. (3) Partner with a local CSR programme — most large IT companies (Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Microsoft) run school-digital-infrastructure CSR programmes that fund 1-3 smart classrooms per partner school. For broader funding strategies, browse our school resource guides or use the school search at getschoolsinfo.com to benchmark against nearby schools' UDISE+ infrastructure data.
Sources: UDISE+ Report 2024-25 (Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India); DIKSHA Annual Report 2023-24; PM-eVidya programme documents from MyGov.in. Numbers verified against UDISE+ Annexures Tables 7.4–7.10.