In a significant move to modernize education, Kerala is integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into school textbooks. Starting in the next academic year, AI learning modules will be included in the Information & Communication Technology (ICT) curriculum for Class 7 students, impacting over 400,000 students across the state.

KITE (Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education) announced that one activity in the ‘Computer Vision’ chapter will involve students creating an AI program to recognize human facial expressions, identifying up to seven different emotions. This marks the first time in India that AI education is uniformly accessible to all students in a class.

The new academic year begins on June 3, 2024, with new ICT textbooks for Classes 1, 3, 5, and 7 available in Malayalam, English, Tamil, and Kannada. The curriculum emphasizes critical thinking, analytical skills, and problem-solving abilities, crucial for holistic development. Logical thinking and programming skills are highlighted in the ICT textbooks for primary levels.

Tools like ‘PictoBlox’ and ‘Scratch’ software will help students practice programming, AI, and robotics. KITE will ensure all necessary software is available on school laptops. New ICT textbooks for Classes 1 and 3 will include FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software) educational applications like GCompris, eduActiv8, OmniTux, and TuxPaint, covering various learning areas.

Additionally, the textbooks will feature applications developed by KITE, such as Traffic Signal for traffic rule learning and Waste Challenge for waste disposal education, along with language labs. The textbooks will also provide guidance on cyber safety and identifying fake news.

KITE began AI training for 80,000 secondary school teachers on May 2, with over 20,000 teachers having completed the training so far. General Education Minister V Sivankutty has instructed that all primary school teachers be trained on the new ICT textbooks starting in June. New ICT textbooks will be introduced for Classes 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, and 10 next academic year.

Source: PTI

Also read: Kerala introduces Iris: Pioneer AI teacher at KTCT High School