India’s Great Brain Fade: More Screens, More Classrooms—Less Thinking?

It’s a regular evening in Lucknow. Dinner’s served, the Wi-Fi is strong, and every child at the table owns a phone more powerful than the computer that once launched astronauts to the Moon. Then Dad asks, “What’s 12% GST on ₹435?” Four sets of eyes drop to their screens—and not one of them reaches for a pen.

Wait—are we getting smarter or just more connected?

If you believe the promise of digital education, we’re in a golden age. Yet the latest PISA scores tell a far darker tale. Between 2018 and 2022, students in advanced economies lost the equivalent of three-quarters of a school year in math ability. That’s the worst drop ever recorded. Reading skills fell too. Even adults are struggling—one in four across developed nations now fails to solve basic math tasks, like calculating discounts or budgeting. India hasn’t taken the PISA test since a bruising showing in 2009. But the government’s own data tells the same story. Class 10 scores dropped 13.4% in math and 18.6% in science between 2017 and 2021, despite education budgets, better infrastructure, and a national push for digital tools.

More schools, more devices… so why are students thinking less?

Here’s the paradox that should keep us up at night: India has more classrooms with internet (54%) and computers (57%) than ever before. Millions of lessons beam into phones via government apps like DIKSHA. EdTech platforms tout AI-powered tutors and gamified learning. It all sounds impressive—until you realise that our ability to reason, calculate, and reflect is falling. This isn’t just an Indian story. It’s a global crisis. But for the country with the world’s largest student population, the consequences are enormous.

Could the screen in your toddler’s hand be the reason?

A 2019 Indian pediatric study found 99.7% of infants under 18 months had been exposed to screens, often for hours. Preschoolers now average 2.7 hours of daily screen time, much of it for entertainment. What they’re missing during that time is irreplaceable: conversation, play, storytelling, face-to-face time with caregivers. Neuroscientists call it the “displacement effect”—every hour on a screen displaces something better for brain development. Attention spans shrink. Verbal skills stagnate. Social-emotional growth suffers. The child may learn to swipe before they learn to speak.

If a chatbot can solve algebra, what’s left for the student?

For years, Indian education has prized left-brain precision—memorization, repetition, performance under pressure. It produced engineers, doctors, coders by the millions. But in a world of generative AI, rote learning is no longer an edge—it’s a liability. “The skills that are easiest to teach and test are now the easiest to automate,” warns Andreas Schleicher of the OECD. That includes formula recall, essay writing, even basic programming. What machines still can’t do well? Original thought, Imagination, Empathy, Curiosity, Judgment. And yet, these are the exact things our exam-focused system sidelines.

Is technology helping children learn—or just stopping them from thinking?

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt says today’s students need less mastery, more openness. Less “finish the syllabus,” more “ask better questions.” But in India, a phone in every hand too often means Instagram at midnight, coaching app at noon, YouTube in between—a whirlpool of content, with little time for reflection. AI can be a great teacher. But it can also be a crutch. Haidt warns: “If a child never has to write, draw, or wait for an answer—they may never learn how to think deeply.” When the future arrives faster than your mind can catch it India has the world’s largest youth population. Its youngest generation is also its most distracted. We’ve never had more tools, Never had more resources, Never had more content, And yet—we may be raising a generation that struggles with the very basics of logic, analysis, and sustained attention. Will India—home to the software capital of the world—end up with students who can’t calculate restaurant tips without a gadget? Will we be the nation of young coders who can’t read a full page without switching tabs? The brain drain no one talks about may not be people leaving the country. It may be potential leaving their minds.

The real question

So here we are: 250 million students, billions in infrastructure, infinite content—and falling reasoning power. If this isn’t a national emergency, what is? Is India brave enough to look in the mirror? Or will we continue to count the number of smartphones in school while ignoring the number of ideas in the classroom? The future isn’t waiting. The question is—will the world’s youngest nation be smart enough to catch up to itself?

(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own and do not reflect those of DNA)