Tribal Education in India: Challenges, Digital Learning and Community – Based Support – A Review

Abstract ―​

Education plays an important role in the social and economic development of children. The tribal communities in India like Katkari, Dhangar, Mahar etc. continuously faces several challenges or barriers in educational access, participation and learning. These barriers may include poverty, geographical isolation, improper infrastructure, language differences, shortage of teachers, limited educational resources and restricted access to the digital technologies. Recent Literature also highlights the importance of community participation, scholarships, residential facilities, culturally responsive education and multilingual learning approaches. This review examines major challenges in tribal education in India and analyses existing approaches including government initiatives, residential schools, digital education, multilingual education and community based-educational support. The reviewed literature indicates that although government programmes and educational interventions have improved access to education, significant challenges remain, particularly in remote tribal communities. Digital education provides opportunities for improving access but connectivity, device availability, digital literacy and language barriers can limit its effectiveness. Recent systematic evidence also identifies community participation and supportive interventions as important facilitators of tribal education. Based on the reviewed literature, this paper identifies a scope for integrated technology enabled educational support that combines supplementary learning, volunteer coordination, monitoring, multilingual access and transparent resource management. The discussion provides the conceptual foundation for platforms such as Shiksha Setu, proposed for supplementary educational support to Katkari tribal children.