November 18, 2025 07:15 AM IST First published on: Nov 18, 2025 at 07:15 AM ISTThe Ministry of Education has announced that an Artificial Intelligence (AI) curriculum will be introduced from Class III onwards in the 2026-27 academic session to prepare India’s future workforce for a “technology-driven economy”. In July, the government launched the SOAR initiative (Skilling for AI Readiness) through which nearly 18,000 CBSE-affiliated schools are already offering AI from Class VI onwards, with 15-hour modules for Classes VI to VIII, and 150-hour elective courses for Classes IX to XII. The CBSE has submitted a draft curriculum for review to the NCERT for “AI integration” across grades. This is in contrast with AI in higher education: A handful of universities introduced mandatory AI courses for science and engineering students this year.One must ask: Why this rush for AI in schools? It is true that AI is set to make a great impact on our lives, and that the country seeks to “play a leading role in AI technologies and shape global AI standards”. But is teaching AI to primary- and middle-school children necessary or sufficient for building such capability?AdvertisementAccording to the government, SOAR helps to “bridge the digital divide” and creates opportunities for children “from rural areas or communities with limited resources”. In a country where an overwhelming majority of children and teachers have never used any digital tools in education, it seems at best ironic and at worst callous to talk of using AI as a means of bridging the divide.Often, the phrase “AI in schools” hides considerable confusion. Some mean a vaguely defined form of AI literacy. Some want increased use of AI tools in classrooms. Others mean the use of AI to enhance teacher “productivity” (for example, to prepare class presentations). Developers speak of personalised learning and assessment. Governments talk of using AI to track every child’s academic progress. In such a situation, it is imperative that we separate informed use of AI tools from teaching AI to children.In the present curriculum, middle school introduces three AI domains: Computer vision, Natural Language Processing, and statistical data. Class VII highlights the “innovative role of AI in fostering sustainability and societal development, highlighting key concepts like Sustainable Development Goals, systems thinking, and system maps”. In Class VIII, children learn the “AI Project Cycle” and AI ethics. Class IX discusses mathematics for AI and generative AI, Class X supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement learning models, clustering and neural networks.AdvertisementIt is hard to understand how children would relate all this to the mathematics and science they are learning. How does a 12-year-old make sense of “fostering sustainability and societal development” or the use of system maps? These are notions that require considerable maturity. Consider this question from the Class VII AI handbook: Which SDG focuses on ‘gender equality and empowering all women and girls’? (a) SDG-3 (b) SDG-5 (c) SDG-8 (d) SDG-10. If learning about AI is to help children develop a critical outlook on its use, exercises of this kind nullify that hope. Given how little success we have had so far on critical thinking in our science education, such expectations seem unrealistic.The question of teaching AI in schools is not to be posed as one with a yes or no answer. It is about examining the educational purpose, the pedagogic means and assessment modes for doing so, and developing teacher capacity and resources for achieving the intended purpose. In the case of children in primary or middle schools, the psychology of children’s learning is also critical. AI is both seductive and addictive. We need to be responsible while placing it in the hands of small children. We must keep asking ourselves: Are we being wise?The writer is professor, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru