Integrating Media and Information Literacy in Indian Schools: Teachers’ Insights on Challenges, Opportunities, and Key Competencies for Implementation

Abstract

Media exerts a significant influence on society. Scholars, academicians, media professionals, and educators from around the world strongly support the inclusion of media education in school curricula. Although media and information literacy (MIL) education has been mentioned in the National Education Policy 2020, there remains a critical need for MIL competencies that align with the nuances of Indian education. Teachers play a vital role in understanding students’ needs, concerns, and priorities and effectively addressing them through appropriate delivery methods. A trained teacher can make students more aware, vigilant, critical, and active while consuming media. Accordingly, this paper focuses on exploring teachers’ perspectives, suggestions, and insights regarding essential competencies required for students to make them media and information literate citizens and the pathways through which MIL can be integrated into the existing school system. The study helps to identify the challenges and opportunities for implementing MIL in Indian schools. The result indicates that teachers prioritized key competencies based on students' needs. Teachers highlighted the significance of incorporating the key concepts like misinformation, digital privacy and safety, media consumption, and its influence on MIL content. The results will play a pivotal role in designing the curriculum within the Indian education system and providing pathways to nurture these competencies among the students.