The event, inaugurated by Hon’ble Shri. Ranjit Singh Deol (IAS, Principal Secretary, School Education and Sports Department, Maharashtra), gathered experts to explore how AI can strengthen learning in government schools
10th March, 2026: Sampark Foundation today convened the ‘AI for Education Impact’ Maharashtra State Action Dialogue at Yashwantrao Chavan Centre, Mumbai. The event was inaugurated by Hon’ble Principal Secretary Shri. Ranjit Singh Deol (IAS, Principal Secretary, School Education and Sports Department, Maharashtra), and also brought together education commissioners, district programme heads, classroom practitioners, and AI thinkers from across India.
The question is: Now that India has achieved over 95% primary enrolment and built school infrastructure at scale, why are so many children still leaving without the ability to read or do basic arithmetic – and can artificial intelligence finally change that? Moving beyond AI hype, the dialogue focused on how learning outcomes can be meaningfully improved with an approach to support teachers’ skills, not replace them. Translating national vision to state action, it featured three panel discussions exploring the role of AI in real-time education decision-making and what this means for India’s children.
Mr. Vineet Nayar, Founder and Chairman, Sampark Foundation commented, “Twenty years ago, we began with a simple idea: every child in a government school deserves the same quality of learning as a child in the best private school. AI is not a disruption of that idea, but a critical expression of it. What is important is that it operates behind the teacher, not in front of the child, encouraging personalized learning. As we deepen our partnerships with state governments, such as in Maharashtra, we aim to create classrooms where curiosity thrives and learning outcomes meaningfully improve.”
Marking 20 years of Sampark Foundation’s pioneering work in technology-enabled education, it is also expanding its efforts to transform learning, including through a significant Rs 42 crore investment in Maharashtra alone. In the state, the Foundation has already reached over 10 Lakh children and trained over 50,000 teachers across 16,000 government schools. It has established 17,000 smart classrooms in the region, and plans to create 15,000 more, to enhance teaching and learning experiences.
Principal Secretary Shri Ranjit Singh Deol, IAS added, “AI can be a force multiplier when harnessed correctly alongside pedagogy. The state of Maharashtra welcomes the transformative role it can play in advancing our vision for quality learning with robust digital infrastructure. We also recognize Sampark Foundation’s efforts and partnership, with a teacher-centric model designed for scale, throughout our journey to drive this shift.”
At the heart of the dialogue was the Sampark AI Framework, which addresses a foundational challenge: government primary school teachers spend roughly 81% of their time on administrative, compliance, and preparation tasks, leaving only 19% for actual teaching. By automating lesson planning, content sequencing, and reporting, and delivering structured, offline-first multimedia content, the Framework directly reclaims that teaching time.
This event also sets the stage for Sampark Foundation’s AI-based, real-time classroom monitoring and governance platform, set to be rolled out across 80,000 government schools at no cost. This will allow district, block, and school-level education leaders to track teaching data, monitor classroom engagement, and generate early warning signals for lagging schools – enabling faster, evidence-based decision-making without increasing administrative burden.