New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Education has announced that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be introduced as a subject from Class 3 onwards in all schools across the country starting from the 2026-27 academic year. The move aims to equip students and teachers with essential digital and analytical skills for the future workforce.

A consultative meeting held in New Delhi on October 29 discussed the implementation framework, with participation from representatives of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

Union Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar said AI learning should be treated as a “basic skill” to help students discover their unique talents. He added that training teachers and developing effective learning materials will be central to the initiative, noting that about one crore teachers need to be trained — a significant challenge for nationwide implementation.

To support this, the CBSE has set up an expert committee led by Prof. Karthik Raman of IIT Madras to design a new curriculum focused on AI and computational thinking.

Currently, AI is taught in over 18,000 CBSE schools for Classes VI to IX, with 10,000 teachers trained since 2019 in collaboration with IBM and the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT).