Overview
- CBSE confirmed a new course in computational thinking and artificial intelligence for Classes 3 to 8 starting in the 2026–27 school year, with schools asked to weave the content into maths, science, social sciences and languages.
- The board set the teacher training theme as Computational Thinking and Understanding AI, built around seven strands that cover basics, child-friendly pedagogy, the role of maths, real-world use, assessment methods, interdisciplinary links and responsible AI use.
- Implementation relies on one-day District Level Deliberations worth six Continuous Professional Development hours, expert-led sessions worth three CPD hours delivered in person or via DD PM e‑Vidya, and regional workshops through CBSE Centres of Excellence that require online registration and a ₹700 fee.
- Stage-wise goals place computational thinking in Classes III–V, then advanced CT, introductory AI concepts and AI ethics in Classes VI–VIII, with outcomes that include telling human from machine intelligence, naming supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement learning, and recognizing regression, classification and clustering.
- An education op-ed welcomed attention to safety and ethics but argued many targets are unrealistic for middle-schoolers, warned of a mismatch between CT and today’s neural-network AI, and flagged teacher readiness and the digital divide as risks to fair rollout.