FILE PHOTO: Words reading "Artificial intelligence AI", miniature of robot and toy hand are pictured.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
Bengaluru: Artificial Intelligence (AI) will enter government schools through a new programme backed by tech giant Microsoft.
The school education and literacy department, in association with the not-for-profit Shikshana Foundation and Microsoft Research India, is launching the Shiksha copilot programme.
The department entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to implement the programme in Bengaluru on Friday.
Minister for School Education and Literacy Madhu Bangarappa said, “Shiksha Copilot is an AI-powered digital assistant that will train teachers and improve the learning outcomes among students. It creates comprehensive, personalised teaching resources and learning experiences grounded in local curriculum, language and context.”
The representatives of the Microsoft and Shikshana Foundation explained that copilot programme will mainly focus on teacher empowerment by generating high-quality personalised content.
“It will also support dynamic curation of engaging teaching resources such as hands-on activities, assessments, real-world examples/ applications, short videos and comprehensive lesson plans based on teachers’ inputs. It also provides a chatbot for teachers for self-learning and interactive content generation,” a Microsoft research representative said.
The minister said, “Following the letter from our leader Rahul Gandhi to look into the options to introduce AI in school education, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah instructed us to take necessary steps to improve the quality of education at government schools with AI. “
“We are taking steps to bring technology to our schools. Firstly, we will be training teachers with AI-powered digital assistants with the help of Microsoft Research India. This will increase the teaching ability of teachers and the learning ability of children,” Madhu explained.
In the first phase, a total of 1,000 teachers from 750 schools in all educational districts will be trained through AI-based digital assistants. In the beginning, it will be for four subjects, including Social Science and Science. In the later stage, it will be extended to other teachers and subjects too.
Prasanna V R, chief executive officer (CEO) of Shikshana Foundation, said, “GenAI has the potential to revolutionise multiple sectors and we feel that a GenAI-based tool in the hands of the teachers will help in vastly improving learning outcomes.”