How the pandemic quietly rewired Indian schools: AI platforms now run the parent-teacher relationship

Educationists in Chennai say the pandemic, which forced schools into digital teaching almost overnight, left behind a legacy that is only now becoming fully visible: a wave of AI-powered enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms running the daily relationship between parents, teachers and students.

“Today, ERPs have become vital to run a school, especially if the strength is high,” said Prem Shankar, chairman, Holy Sai Group of Institutions.

Several city schools have adopted mobile or web-based tools such as My Classboard and Neverskip, which charge schools on a per-student basis. Beyond academics, these platforms inform parents about homework, fees and transport, and create a shared communication channel with teachers.

At Vellammal Bodhi Campus, R Vidya, parent of a Class IX student, has felt the change first-hand. She no longer waits for her son to update her about tests or assignments; the school’s app notifies her directly, with an assessment of his strong and weak points and subject-wise insights. “Apart from the results of tests and internal assessments, the school uploads report cards and attendance details, to ensure transparency,” she said.

The systems are also being used for grading support. Answer keys are fed into the platforms and answer sheets are analysed, offering insights into language through comparison, according to a teacher at a prominent IB school on the OMR. “The platforms are evolving. Once they notice a pattern, they automatically provide analysis without referring to answer sheets,” the teacher said.

Adoption remains uneven, however. Beena, whose son previously studied at Chennai Public School, said its parents’ dashboard was far simpler than the ‘chaotic’ group chats at his current school, which has no comparable platform — a reminder that the pandemic’s digital push has not reached every classroom equally.

[Wikimedia Commons/by McKay Savage]