Digital and Online Education: NEP 2020 and its Critique

The idea of ‘digital and online education’ has often been looked at in a positive light and is believed to be inclusive in nature as it promises to make education free for all. The National Education Policy of 2020 also proposes online and digital education as a solution to the problem of inaccessibility. In this commentary, we would like to challenge this notion of ‘openness’ or ‘accessibility’. By contextualising it in the triad of class, caste, and gender, we find the policy has overlooked the intersectional politics and experiences of India and has attempted to provide a ‘one size fits all’ solution. The commentary discusses certain issues that the normalisation of online and digital education would pose and how the policy has failed to address those issues.