CBSE, The Central Board of Secondary Education announced a collaboration with tech giant IBM (on Thursday) to introduce Artificial Intelligence, AI curriculum for students of classes 11 and 12 in about 200 high schools across 13 Indian states. The 13 states include Delhi-NCR, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Kerala, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab.
Developed in collaboration with IBM (NYSE: IBM), the AI curriculum is part of CBSE’s Social Empowerment through Work Education and Action (SEWA) program.
The IBM AI curriculum is structured around a course framework for high school students consisting of base strands of
- knowledge (basics, history, applications),
- skills (design thinking, data fluency, computational thinking, critical thinking) and
- values (ethical decision making, bias) in Artificial intelligence.
AI curriculum is further made robust with assessment methods and problem-based learning outcomes for teachers, to build foundational skills of Artificial intelligence in students making them not just the consumers of AI, but also the creators as well.
The curriculum was co-developed with Australia’s Macquarie University to meet CBSE’s requirements for Grades XI & XII, and also with Indian implementation partners – Learning Links Foundation and 1M1B.
Launch of the 2020 IBM EdTech Youth Challenge
The 2020 IBM EdTech Youth Challenge is also been announced by IBM and CBSE to encourage teams of teachers and students to leverage emerging technologies including cloud, Blockchain, AI to solve existing or imminent problems that society is currently facing. The final winners of the EdTech Youth Challenge stand to get a two-week internship and mentorship experience from IBM senior leaders as well as opportunities to participate in international or national hackathons or conferences.
Manoj Ahuja, Chairperson, CBSE said in a statement that AI will certainly become all-pervasive in coming years in our lives and it is very important to inculcate the necessary knowledge and skills right from the high school level. He also added that the unique proposition of the IBM AI curriculum in high school allows students from Grade XI & XII of all streams, in addition to Computer Science (CS), to build the foundation for themselves to be AI ready.
A series of Teacher Training sessions and Principal Orientation were also conducted between September 2019 and June 2020 with an aim to impart AI skills to 1000 teachers and 5000 Grade XI students across India.
