The Institutional Pedagogical Enablement Gap in Indian School Education: Digital Access and Uneven Transformation

Digital transformation in school education is often assessed through digital access, yet access alone may not capture the institutional conditions supporting pedagogically oriented technology use. In this study, the distinction between foundational digital access and institutional pedagogical enablement was examined, and the extent to which these measures developed at comparable rates across States/UTs was assessed. Using administrative data from UDISE+ for all 36 Indian States and Union Territories (States/UTs) during the period 2022–23 to 2025–26, digital access was defined using functional computers and internet access, whereas institutional pedagogical enablement was defined through smart classrooms, projectors, and integrated teaching-learning devices. The Access–Enablement Gap was calculated by subtracting institutional pedagogical enablement from digital access. Statistical analyses, including repeated-measures ANOVA, non-parametric robustness testing, correlation analysis, and regression, were performed at the State/UT level. Digital access increased by 14.92 percentage points, while institutional pedagogical enablement increased by 7.93 percentage points, resulting in a 7.00-percentage-point increase in the Access–Enablement Gap. In 25 out of 36 States/UTs, the Access–Enablement Gap widened, while enablement exhibited substantial temporal persistence in the relative distribution of States/UTs. The results suggest that digital access expanded faster than institutional pedagogical enablement, highlighting the value of assessing school digital transformation through paired indicators of foundational access and institutionally oriented pedagogical infrastructure.