CBSE Plans AI Curriculum In Schools, Digital Reskilling For Teachers

In an attempt to revamp the education system at a primary level, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has signed partnerships with Microsoft India and IBM to focus on tech reskilling for teachers and AI curriculum in schools.

In its partnership with Microsoft India, CBSE is looking to conduct capacity building programmes for high school teachers with an aim to integrate cloud-powered technology in K12 teaching and inculcating digital teaching skills in educators through curriculum as well as extra-curricular training. The programme for teachers of grades VIII to X will be conducted in 10 cities across the country, starting September 11.

Microsoft India Partnership For Teachers

The CBSE Microsoft association is expected to provide teachers better access to the latest information and  communication technology (ICT) tools and help them integrate technology into teaching and the curriculum in a smart manner.

The selected 1000 teachers nominated by CBSE will be undergoing a three-day project-based training for practical, hands-on knowledge of Microsoft 365 tools such as OneNote, Flipgrid, Teams, Outlook, Minecraft and Paint3D.

Further, CBSE said that the teachers will also learn about digital story-telling, creation of personalised learning experiences for diverse learners, use of Teams for virtual lessons and how to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) tools to create bots and how to demystify concepts around AI through course curriculum.

With the help of this programme, teachers will also get the opportunity to become Microsoft Innovative Educators. With this, they will have access to free resources, tools and software; as well as mentoring sessions and discussions with global educators.

Manish Prakash, general manager, Microsoft India said, “Through this initiative, we are empowering institutions, educators and students of India to acquire early education/skills in new technologies like AI and cloud to lead that growth in that rapidly changing world.” In the next phase the program will be extended to cover skilling workshops for 400 CBSE School on the Microsoft K-12 Education Transformation Framework.

Partnership With IBM For Students

Further, CBSE’s partnership with IBM is focussed on building the curriculum for AI for school children. CBSE had earlier announced its plans to introduce AI for students from class VIII onwards.

For the first phase of this implementation, the programme will focus on post graduate teachers and students in Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Bhubaneswar. The programme will consist of the following three stages.

The course being introduced in the curriculum comprises a suite of research-informed readings, tailored online, face-to-face and in-school work with colleagues assisted by online support from expert facilitators. Biswajit Saha, CBSE’s training and skill education director told schools, “Participants will develop artificial intelligence (AI) knowledge skills and values through engaging with multimedia online resources as well as hands-on activities and sequencing of learning experiences.”

• In stage one, there will be an orientation workshop for CBSE school principals / school leaders with the focus being on significance of AI as an emerging technology and the need to foster an AI-ready and innovation-ready ecosystem for educators and students.
• In stage two, CBSE teachers will be trained in the workshop to help build foundational skills of AI through a customised curriculum that can enable teachers to guide and mentor students on solving problems and innovating around AI.
• In stage three, there will be the AI-enabled SEWA programme for students where IBM trained experts will go to select schools in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi, to foster student innovation and make them innovation and AI-ready.

The central government had allocated more than $480 Mn under the Digital India initiative in the Union Budget last year, and CBSE’s move to incorporate new-age technology lessons for AI and other digital skills in the curriculum is laudable. The AI sector has the potential to add $957 Bn to India’s GDP and boost annual growth by 1.3% by 2035, according to an Accenture report, but talent remains a huge issue and an AI-centric learning at CBSE school level would go some way towards solving it.