Every parent in India carries a persistent hope that education will give their child the chance to step into a wider world of opportunities. Yet in many parts of the country, this hope rests on crumbling foundations, sometimes quite literally.
Earlier this year, at a government school in Rajasthan’s Jhalawar district, children gathered for morning prayers. Minutes later, part of the building collapsed. Seven students died. It was a brutal reminder that for millions of Indian children, the greatest barrier to learning isn’t curriculum or digital access, it is the safety of the very rooms they sit in.
Before we talk about pedagogy or 21st-century skills, we must confront the truth that school infrastructure is the foundation of education, not an afterthought.
The Unseen Architecture of Learning
India’s policy debates often orbit around big reforms — teacher training, assessments, ed-tech. But the daily reality of children in thousands of schools is defined by more basic variables: whether the ceiling fans turn, whether there is light in the room, whether the toilets function, whether the water taps work.
Infrastructure may sound prosaic, but research worldwide shows it is one of the strongest predictors of learning outcomes.
A 2024 study from Ecuador’s primary schools, a context with surprising parallels to India, found that access to simple school infrastructure such as water, sewage connections, art/music rooms, nursing facilities and computer labs consistently correlated with better student performance in both mathematics and language.
Crucially, the researchers noted that basic infrastructure often produced greater learning gains than high-profile or expensive upgrades. In rural areas especially, investments in clean water, waste collection and functional computer labs had a stronger impact than more sophisticated facilities.
The lesson is blunt but powerful that if you strengthen the basics, learning follows.
India’s Progress — And Its Uneven Geography
India has made progress. The ASER surveys show steady improvements:
- functional girls’ toilets: 66.4% (2018) → 72% (2024)
- drinking water access: 74.8% → 77.7%
These are encouraging numbers, but they still leave millions of children in schools without safe sanitation or reliable water. The gaps are most acute in parts of the Northeast and in rural pockets across several states. Electricity remains erratic in many districts and schools continue to operate in buildings older than independent India itself.
The Ecuador findings resonate uncomfortably here: small, unglamorous investments in basic infrastructure can have disproportionately large effects but they often receive the least political attention.
Funds gravitate towards visible projects like boundary walls, digital boards while sewage, ventilation and nursing rooms remain invisible priorities.
Girls, Early Childhood and the Geography of Disadvantage
For adolescent girls, infrastructure is destiny. The absence of separate toilets remains one of the top reasons for dropout once they reach puberty. Safety — of the walk to school, of the classroom structure — is another.
The consequences begin earlier than we admit. Anganwadis, where India’s youngest learners take their first steps into structured learning, often operate in rooms with damaged flooring, poor ventilation and no age-appropriate equipment. Early childhood researchers warn that the physical environment in the first five years shapes cognitive ability, socio-emotional development and school readiness. Gaps created at this stage widen over time.
Children in facilities with basic amenities and dedicated activity spaces, including art and music, performed better academically, hinting at how environmental enrichment fuels cognitive growth.
Why Finland Still Matters
Finland’s schools are not better because they have more technology or modern designs. They are better because they are built on an uncompromising commitment to safety, dignity, equity.
Clean toilets. Well-lit rooms. Ventilation. Medical support. Free meals.
These do not make headlines. But they create the conditions where teachers can teach and children can learn.
India, too, needs this clarity of purpose.
A New Model of School Infrastructure Reform
India’s demographic dividend will remain rhetoric if classrooms remain unsafe, undignified or simply unfit for learning. The path forward is not mysterious:
- national minimum infrastructure standards
- dedicated budgets for WASH (water, sanitation, hygiene)
- safe, enriched Anganwadis
- reliable electricity and digital connectivity as core entitlements
- functional labs, libraries and activity rooms (not just computer labs)
- ongoing teacher training so infrastructure is actually used, a gap the Ecuador study pointed out clearly
We need a shift in how we think. School infrastructure is not the backdrop to education; it is part of the learning system itself.
Transforming Spaces, Restoring Dignity
Smile Foundation has been investing in precisely this quiet architecture of opportunity creating STEM labs, English and science labs, solar-powered digital classrooms, smart class installations and upgraded learning environments. These efforts show that transformation doesn’t always come from sweeping reforms; often, it starts with a working light bulb and a safe room.
From Bengaluru to Nagaland, every child deserves a classroom that affirms their dignity, sparks their curiosity and expands their sense of possibility.
India has long believed in the power of education. It is time we give our children the infrastructure to make that belief real.
