– Dr. Anand Wadadekar, Founder, National Forum for Learning, Innovation & Growth

As the world races towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping every aspect of work, life, and learning. While adults scramble to catch up, one question looms large: Are we preparing our children to thrive in an AI-dominated world?

The answer lies not just in introducing coding or digital tools at school, but in fundamentally rethinking how we educate, parent, and nurture children from the earliest years. With the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 as a progressive framework, India has a unique opportunity to transform how we raise the Next Generation i.e. Gen Alpha.

The Future of Work – Human-AI Collaboration

Though AI is automating routine tasks, making decision-making faster, and transforming industries from healthcare to education, it cannot replace human imagination, ethics, relationships, or empathy – skills which are becoming more essential than ever.

Today, schools must go beyond content delivery and focus on nurturing:

• Creativity and innovation
• Critical thinking and problem-solving
• Collaboration and emotional intelligence
• Adaptability and resilience

AI Literacy Must Begin Early

Teaching AI to school students doesn’t mean aiming to turn them into programmers from age 5. But it means:

• Making them curious about how AI works.
• Encouraging ethical discussions about technology.
• Helping them understand bias, misinformation, and responsible digital use.
• Using AI tools to enhance learning, not replace it.
• Foundational digital and AI awareness, built gradually through age-appropriate methods, will ensure that students don’t just become users of AI, but thinkers and creators alongside it.

NEP 2020: A Transformative Enabler

India’s National Education Policy 2020 offers a bold and visionary approach that aligns beautifully with this mindset. Key highlights include:

1. Experiential and Inquiry-Based Learning

NEP promotes critical thinking, discovery, and hands-on learning across all stages of schooling. It shifts the focus from rote memorisation to conceptual understanding and application.

2. Foundational Stage (ECCE) Emphasis

The policy gives high importance to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), focusing on cognitive stimulation, play-based learning, and curiosity-building – core attributes needed in the AI age.

3. Technology Integration 

NEP envisions technology-enhanced classrooms, AI-powered adaptive learning tools, and digital skilling, but with a human-centric approach.

4. Flexibility and Multidisciplinary Learning

By introducing choices and flexibility early, students can pursue arts, sciences, coding, philosophy, and sports – all fostering creativity, curiosity, and exploration.

5. Teacher Training and Innovation

Teachers are seen as facilitators of learning, encouraged to innovate and adapt pedagogy. Training in digital fluency and future-ready skills is part of this shift. India aims to train over one million educators in AI literacy, data ethics, and adaptive pedagogy. Programs like NISHTHA 2.0 and 3.0 on the DIKSHA platform include modules on AI and ICT integration tailored for both primary and secondary teachers.

Building Future-Ready Children: How Schools Can Lead the Way

School education is and will always be the foundation for the future student and workforce – intellectually, emotionally, and socially. It is in schools that curiosity is sparked, values are seeded, and lifelong learning habits are formed. What begins in the classroom echoes across careers, communities, and cultures.

As the world changes rapidly, schools must anchor stability while nurturing adaptability. Their role is not just to educate children but to shape the citizens and workforce of tomorrow. To truly build future-ready children, school leaders must become architects of change. Here’s how:

1. Create a Culture of Curiosity, Not Compliance

Design learning spaces where children are encouraged to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and experiment without fear of failure.

2. Invest in Teacher Re-skilling

Continuous training for teachers in AI basics, digital pedagogy, emotional intelligence, and design thinking will transform classrooms into incubators of future skills. Use of NPET-mandated modules via DIKSHA and NISHTHA training to boost both digital and AI confidence. Encourage teacher participation in workshops and collaborations with platforms like SkillsBuild by CBSE in partnership with Intel/IBM.

3. Adopt Tech Thoughtfully

Instead of overwhelming classrooms with screens, use technology to enhance experiential learning through simulations, gamified lessons, AI-powered personalised content, and collaborative digital projects.

4. Integrate SEL (Social-Emotional Learning)

Schools must prioritise SEL across grades to help children navigate the complex, AI-driven future with self-awareness, empathy, and collaboration.

5. Set Up Innovation Labs and Tinkering Spaces

Equip students to think beyond textbooks through maker labs, robotics, storytelling with tech, and mini startup simulations.

Engaging Parents In A Shared Responsibility

Schools cannot do all this alone. Parents must evolve from supervisors to co-travellers in the learning journey of their children. Here’s how schools can engage them:

1. Workshops on Future of Work & AI Awareness

Educate parents on how AI is transforming work and the importance of 21st-century skills, by hosting regular AI literacy workshops, storytelling sessions, and demo classes. This will reduce resistance to change and fosters alignment.

2. Parenting for Independence

Conduct sessions on letting go of helicopter parenting, encouraging independence, decision-making, and critical reflection in children.

3. Home as an Extension of Learning

Provide parents with strategies to make their homes spaces of exploration – encouraging reading, open-ended play, project-based family tasks, or tech-free conversations.

4. Celebrate Process, Not Just Performance

Shift focus from marks to mindsets. Recognise student curiosity, collaboration, ethical behaviour, and effort – qualities valued in the real world.

From Consumers to Creators

The future belongs to those who can:

Ask why, not just how.

Combine technology with humanity.

Build solutions that are not just efficient, but ethical and inclusive.

And this begins not in college, but in the classroom and living room, from age 3 onwards.

Courage Over Control

The journey from foundational learning to AI-enabled innovation begins with courage and curiosity—and flourishes in collaborative ecosystems where children, parents, and schools co-create a future-ready generation.

As educators and parents, our responsibility is not to predict the future, but to prepare children to shape it. Let us:

– Use the NEP 2020 as our guiding light,

– Introduce AI as a companion in curiosity,

– Prioritise creativity, character, and connection,

– Build ecosystems where children feel seen, trusted, and inspired,

And most importantly, trust our children to discover their paths — bravely and freely.

Because in an AI-powered world, it is not the smartest who thrive, but the most authentically human.

Also read: AI helps struggling students but may hinder high achievers