Jyotsana B has her software-engineer son to thank for staying up to date with the latest in AI. 

She wants to understand the frontier technology as much as she possibly can, and not just because she’s curious. For the principal of the CGR International School in Hyderabad, it’s a professional imperative. 

In April, education minister Dharmendra Pradhan unveiled a new AI curriculum for schools to mandatorily teach from this academic year. It prescribes 50 hours of AI literacy and computational thinking for students in classes 3 to 5, increasing it to 100 hours for those in classes 11 and 12.

The Central Board of School Education followed up with a circular the same month, giving the 28,000 schools affiliated to it, most of them private, about 90 days to embed what was an elective subject into their compulsory lessons. It sent the schools—which account for more than 20 million students and start teaching new classes around June—scrambling to redo their yearly academic calendars, which most of them had finalised nearly six months before they broke for summer vacations in March. 

Jyotsana, though, was ahead of the curve. Her school was already experimenting with AI tools designed to help quicken the learning process. So she appears better prepared for the new curriculum, which is intended to teach students to “use AI ethically”. Fellow school managers may do well to get up to speed, and fast. Because from 2029, AI will no longer be ungraded, low-stakes lessons, but a compulsory board-exam subject for every pupil starting in class 11. 

Pradhan made the government’s intention to integrate AI into school curricula clear when he declared at the India AI Impact Summit in February: “Education in AI and AI in education are inseparable.” 

Still, not everyone’s ready for it just yet. Affluent schools in tier-1 cities may be able to integrate AI into their classrooms seamlessly, but even private institutions in tier-2 and tier-3 cities may not be as prepared, argues Mary Shanti Priya, the principal of the Vista International School in Hyderabad. “And that will be a problem.”

As schools that have ushered AI into actual classroom teaching, like CGR International, have found out, children love to use AI until they don’t.