Maths. Just the word makes many students break into a cold sweat. It's that subject which can seem like an unsolvable puzzle or a monster lurking in the back of every classroom. But in Tonk, Rajasthan, something incredible is happening. Instead of fear and frustration, students are now experiencing confidence, clarity and even excitement when it comes to mathematics, all thanks to a smart idea by IAS officer Saumya Jha.
Like many others, Aman Gujar, a 16-year-old student from Tonk found math complicated and stressful. Despite hours of studying, his marks refused to budge. His scores hovered around 55 and he felt anxious about the board exams. But everything changed when his school started using a new AI-powered learning programme called 'Padhai With AI' says a detailed report in The Better India.
This innovative programme doesn’t just dump information. Instead, it acts like a patient tutor who explains every math problem step by step in simple language and in two languages, too. If Aman didn’t understand a solution, he could refresh the page and get a brand-new, easy-to-understand explanation. Slowly, what seemed like impossible equations turned into small, solvable puzzles.
“I used to dread math,” Aman tells The Better India, with a smile. “But now, it feels like a game. The AI helps me practice, gives me more examples, and tests me regularly. I even scored 65 marks in the final board exam — 10 more than before!” His dream of becoming a Superintendent of Police now seems a little closer.
This bright idea was born from the mind of IAS officer Saumya Jha. During her visits to government schools in Tonk, she noticed something troubling. Despite students dreaming big, wanting to work in robotics, drones, or AI itself, very few dared to choose science streams. Why? Because most of them lacked confidence in subjects like mathematics.
She also observed that teachers were stretched thin. Apart from teaching, they had to juggle election duties and other administrative work. This left little time for focused teaching. Add to that, many students from farming families were forced to skip school during harvest season. The result? Interrupted learning.
So in September 2024, Saumya launched the ‘Padhai With AI’ programme, mixing technology with human effort to tackle the problem. “I personally used AI to study and manage my early IAS days,” Saumya told The Better India. “It made me wonder: Why not use this for students who don’t have easy access to quality education?”
Saumya Jha, a 2017-batch IAS officer, calls the ‘Padhai With AI’ programme her brainchild. It was inspired by her own experiences and insights during her professional journey. The first phase of the programme started in September 2024 as a pilot project. Later, in January 2025, Version 2 of the programme was launched, bringing important improvements.
The upgraded Version 2 includes a structured teaching calendar, regular weekly tests for students, and advanced tools to track students’ performance. The AI portal also shows the names of top-performing students. This motivates other students to work harder and improve their scores.
Right now, the programme is running in over 350 government senior secondary schools across Tonk district. It is helping students, especially those in Class 10, to better understand math concepts and feel more confident when solving math problems.
So far, over 11,000 students in the district have used this AI-based learning system. IAS Saumya Jha is currently serving as the District Magistrate of Tonk.
The programme’s star feature is a bilingual AI tutor. It can answer any question from the school’s textbook in real time. Teachers or students select a question, and the AI provides an instant solution or creates similar practice problems of varying difficulty levels. Students don’t just get answers, they get unlimited practice problems tailored to their own performance.
Teachers, like Ashish Thakur from Ameenpura, are also thrilled. “Earlier, we couldn’t generate enough objective questions for students. Now, with a click, we have practice sheets in the exact format of board exams,” he explains.
Version 2 of the portal, launched in January 2025, added features like standardised teaching schedules, weekly tests, and advanced performance analytics. Top-performing students are regularly highlighted, giving others extra motivation.
The results speak for themselves. In the 2025 board exams, Tonk saw a stunning improvement in math scores. A whopping 96.4% of students passed, three percent more than the state average of 93%. Even the number of top scorers jumped from 23% to 28.23%. This huge leap came in just six weeks of AI-powered learning.
“It’s not magic, just smart use of technology,” Saumya says humbly. “The key is personalised learning. Every student learns at their own pace, and the AI helps them fill in their weak spots.”
What started with math is now expanding to other subjects like English and Science. The programme promises a future where learning is no longer about fear and rote memorisation, but about curiosity, confidence, and progress.
The students of Tonk are not just passing exams, they are passing barriers that once seemed too big to cross. All thanks to an IAS officer who believed that technology, when used wisely, can shine a bright light even in the most remote classrooms.
