Agency, not just access: Next frontier in India’s education journey

This article is authored by Khushboo Awasthi and Dr Pratibha Narayanan.

When Rashmi, a shy ninth-grader in Sambal, Uttar Pradesh, agreed to tutor four younger children in basic numeracy, she thought she was just helping them catch up. A year later, she was planning lessons, persuading parents to send their kids to school, and discussing student engagement strategies with her teacher. The experience sharpened her confidence and patience. So, when she failed her first medical entrance attempt, she didn’t give up. Today, Rashmi is in her third year of MBBS.

Education (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Her story is not about an expensive coaching class or elite schooling. It’s about being given agency - a responsibility to shape outcomes and discovering the power to lead.

India has the potential for thousands more Rashmis. With 248 million children in school, we are sitting on the world’s largest pool of young talent. But numbers alone won’t secure our demographic dividend. Too many classrooms still see students as passive recipients, not active participants. Foundational skills remain out of reach for millions of students, and without urgent change in imagination and delivery of education, India’s $30-trillion Viksit Bharat dream risks being another government programme.

The shift we need is clear: from education access alone to access coupled with agency.

The big question remains - why does agency matter and why now? Research across contexts has shown what common sense tells us: when children are trusted to solve problems on their own, to teach others, to create solutions to everyday problems, they build skills that last beyond the classroom. Leadership, communication, and resilience are qualities no test score can fully capture.

The OECD’s Learning Compass 2030 recognises student agency as central to preparing young people for the future of work and citizenship. India’s own National Education Policy (2020) echoes the same, urging schools to make students “active participants in their own learning.” Both — global evidence and domestic policy — point in the same direction.

And yet, large-scale surveys show millions of Indian children still struggle with basic reading and numeracy. Without enabling their agency, we risk producing graduates ill-equipped for both work and life.

There are three ways to place agency at the heart of schooling:

1. Give students real, graded responsibility : Student agency is not a one-time intervention. It is a principle and practice to be embedded in the system. In primary grades, it can look like peer teaching and student-led feedback circles. In middle school, the opportunities include running classroom/ school councils and taking part in local civic projects. By secondary school, students participate in inquiry labs, tinker with prototypes, and investigate real community issues. Rashmi’s mentoring journey shows how agency, practised early and consistently, becomes everyday leadership training.
2. Restore agency teachers and school leaders: Agency is not only for students. It must extend to those who teach and lead them. For many teachers, rigid curricula, administrative demands, and lack of voice have eroded their sense of ownership. Teachers should be able to readily adapt to lessons to their students’ contexts, test ideas, and reflect on what works. It could be as simple as a short pause in the timetable for collective reflection, resources to try out new approaches, or peer-led circles to exchange practises. When teachers initiate and sustain these micro-improvements, they rediscover their role as change-makers. And these small shifts, multiplied across classrooms, build momentum for lasting transformation in the system.
3. Anchor agency in community life: Students thrive when they see their ideas shape the world around them. Karnataka’s Makkala Gram Sabhas — where children present school and village issues to local governance bodies — show how agency can move from classroom to community. When students see their voices translate into real action, the lesson lasts far beyond textbooks.

We don’t need sweeping, expensive reforms to make this shift. Some simple, scalable measures can go a long way:

• Institutionalise peer mentoring with clear guides and recognition for student mentors.
• Make project-based learning mandatory in select grades, assessed as part of the curriculum.
• Strengthen School Management Committees to co-design priorities and link students with community projects.
• Create innovation funds at block or cluster levels to support teacher-led classroom and school innovations. Digital platforms and practitioner networks can amplify what works, making tested tools available across schools without replacing local wisdom.

The challenge is to move from scattered pilots to system-wide change. That means aligning incentives. Exams must reward applied skills and project work, not just rote recall. Teacher capacity building and school calendars must integrate activities and initiatives that enable agency, not treat them as add-ons. Policymakers, donors and NGOs must back approaches that show measurable gains in classrooms, not just inputs on paper.

We also need to generate and share context-rich evidence. A model that works in a drought-prone district may not fit a coastal village, but the principles of student and teacher agency and community partnerships hold across settings.

Any education reform in India should be asked two questions:

• Does it give students meaningful opportunities to exercise decision-making?
• Does it restore the agency of teachers, parents and local leaders to adapt and contextualise to children’s needs?

If the answer is yes, it is an agency-centred reform.

Rashmi didn’t make it to medical school because she memorised more facts. She made it because she learned how to lead, how to persevere, and how to influence others. That confidence compounds in her own life and in those she mentors.

India’s demographic dividend will not be realised by access to schooling alone. It will be unlocked when our classrooms, teachers, and communities consistently build agency. If we scale that confidence, not just programmes, we will cultivate leaders and citizens who can navigate uncertainty and design solutions for the future.

The goal is ambitious, but the path is clear: give students agency, trust teachers to innovate, and open civic spaces for young voices. That is how India can turn its vast youth population into its greatest advantage.

This article is authored by Khushboo Awasthi, co-founder & COO, ShikshaLokam and co-founder, Mantra4Change and Dr Pratibha Narayanan, neuroscientist turned educationist and co-founder, Involve Learning Solutions Foundation.