Parliament Question: Integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital literacy in education

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 506 ANSWERED ON 04/02/2026 Integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital literacy in education 506 Smt. Ranjeet Ranjan: Shri Digvijaya Singh: Smt. Phulo Devi Netam: Will the Minister of Education be pleased to state: (a) the number of Government schools with functional computer labs and internet connectivity, along with the total number of Government school, State-wise/UT-wise; (b) Government schools offering AI or digital literacy in their curriculum; (c) whether national guidelines or pedagogical standards exist for AI education at the school level, if so, details thereof and if not, reasons therefor; (d) the number of Government school teachers trained in AI-related instruction and whether such training includes subject-specific capacity building, State-wise/UT-wise; (e) whether learning outcome assessments have been conducted to evaluate these programmes; and (f) the steps taken to prevent widening of digital divides due to disparities in infrastructure and teacher training? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY) (a): As per UDISE+ 2024-25, the State-wise/UT wise details of schools with functional ICT Labs and internet connectivity, along with the total numbers of Government schools is at Annexure. (b) to (d): The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has emphasized the importance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its role in school curriculum. Para 4.24 of the policy mentions that “concerted curricular and pedagogical initiatives, including the introduction of contemporary subjects such as Artificial Intelligence, Design Thinking, Holistic Health, Organic Living, Environmental Education, Global Citizenship Education (GCED), etc. at relevant stages will be undertaken to develop these various important skills in students at all levels.” The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has constituted a Textbook Development Team to develop syllabi and textbooks of AI for Grades 11 and 12. NCERT has also included a project on Animation and Games in the vocational education textbook for Grade 6. This project includes the use of AI tools. The existing NCERT textbooks of Computer Science class XI (Chapter 3, https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php?kecs1=ps-11) and Informatics Practices class XI (Chapter 2, https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php?keip1=ps-8) talks about AI, IoT and other emerging technologies. The Government of India has launched the SOAR (Skilling for AI Readiness), a national initiative in alignment with the objectives of NEP 2020, the National Programme on AI (NPAI)Skilling Framework and Viksit Bharat 2047 vision of digital empowerment. SOAR is aimed at embedding AI awareness and foundational competencies among school students (Classes 6–12) and building AI literacy among educators. The SOAR curriculum comprises four progressive National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF)-aligned modules. For students of classes 6 to 12, three distinct micro-credentials: (i) AI to be Aware, (ii) AI to Acquire, and (iii) AI to Aspire, are offered, each of 15 hours duration, amounting to 45 hours in total. These cover fundamental AI concepts, practical programming, ethical and responsible AI usage, and career opportunities in technology. For educators, a 45-hour module titled AI for Educators provides comprehensive training in AI concepts, pedagogical strategies, and practical classroom application. The Ministry of Education is implementing a National Mission to improve learning outcomes at the School Education level through an integrated teacher training programme called ‘National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement’ (NISHTHA). Through NISHTHA, National Resource Groups are trained in Education Technology and Digital Teachers are certified. Furthermore, to prepare students for emerging technologies such as AI, the Ministry of Education has undertaken several initiatives as following: - • Implementation of the NEP 2020 which emphasizes multidisciplinary, technology-integrated learning with a strong focus on coding, AI, data science, design thinking, computational thinking, and experiential learning from the school level onward. • Nation-wide capacity-building programmes for teachers and students through online AI Series, workshops, and training initiatives in collaboration with industry and technical agencies. • Organizing regular capacity building/consultation workshops with stakeholders. These workshops are aimed at identifying innovative, education-specific AI solutions and understanding best practices in responsible AI deployment. The DIKSHA team is also continuously working on incorporating new AI-based features and tools to support teachers in classroom instruction, assessment, and personalized learning. • Teacher sensitization/ orientation sessions help teachers and academic teams understand AI capabilities, limitations, ethical considerations, and safe-use guidelines, enabling them to integrate AI tools responsibly into their pedagogical practices. (e): The Government of India conducts periodic large-scale assessments to measure learning and educational outcomes across the country. In this regard, the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 was undertaken by the National Assessment Centre-PARAKH, NCERT under the aegis of the Department of School Education & Literacy. To gain a comprehensive understanding of students’ educational backgrounds and to enable a more comprehensive interpretation of assessment findings, information on various contextual variables was also collected as part of the survey exercise. Such contextual variables included access to digital devices and the internet at home and school. National, State and District level reports from PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024, providing insights on achievement of stage-specific competencies and contextual variables affecting performance, are available at https://dashboard.parakh.ncert.gov.in/en, a dedicated dashboard designed to disseminate the findings of the assessment. (f): A comprehensive initiative called PM eVidya was initiated as part of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan’ on 17th May, 2020, which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education across the country under the aegis of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. States/Union Territories (UTs) collaborate with NCERT to utilise, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives as per their requirements in mother tongue/local/regional languages. PM eVidya includes 200 DTH TV Channels allotted toStates/UTs/Autonomous Bodies (ABs)/Other Ministries in Government of India and 400 Radio channels to enable them to provide supplementary education as per their requirement in various Indian languages for classes 1-12. Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) is the Nation’s One Nation, One Digital platform for providing quality e-content for school education in States/UTs along with QR coded Energised Textbooks (ETBs) for all grades. States/UTs/ABs have generated and contributed over 3.7 lakh content in mother local/regional languages enabling multilingualism. DIKSHA Offline supports areas with limited or no internet connectivity. The stakeholders have access to more than 450+ Virtual Labs and 100 Virtual skill labs on DIKSHA. As per PRABANDH portal, till date, 1,79,153 ICT Labs and 1,76,738 Smart Classrooms have been sanctioned to State/UT Governments. Additionally, the Government of India, in the Budget 2025, has announced provision of broadband connectivity to all Government Secondary schools in rural areas under the ‘BharatNet’ project to enhance digital infrastructure in remote areas. *****ANNEXURE ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) OF RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 506 FOR REPLY ON 04TH FEBRUARY, 2026 ASKED BY HON’BLE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT SMT. RANJEET RANJAN, SHRI DIGVIJAYA SINGH AND SMT. PHULO DEVI NETAM REGARDING “INTEGRATION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) AND DIGITAL LITERACY IN EDUCATION” The State-wise/UT wise details of schools with functional ICT Labs and internet connectivity, along with the total numbers of Government schools Schools with Schools with Total Government Schools with S.No. State/UT Internet functional ICT Grade VI and above connectivity Labs 1 A&N Islands 160 148 136 2 Andhra Pradesh 10646 10583 1309 3 Arunachal Pradesh 1269 436 140 4 Assam 11282 10894 3946 5 Bihar 38355 32923 4871 6 Chandigarh 115 115 103 7 Chhattisgarh 18091 11852 932 8 DND - DNH 211 210 160 9 Delhi 1157 1157 715 10 Goa 132 130 47 11 Gujarat 22353 21759 12756 12 Haryana 5683 4683 2362 13 Himachal Pradesh 4782 3663 1941 14 J & K 9822 4329 2114 15 Jharkhand 14527 8686 3515 16 Karnataka 28753 11631 2517 17 Kerala 2426 2250 1378 18 Ladakh 499 248 135 19 Lakshadweep 21 21 8 20 Madhya Pradesh 34152 12933 2610 21 Maharashtra 22538 14433 1037 22 Manipur 984 385 320 23 Meghalaya 2352 769 113 24 Mizoram 1342 904 270 25 Nagaland 925 489 109 26 ODISHA 21734 18654 4628 27 Puducherry 186 186 116 28 Punjab 6425 6353 84 29 Rajasthan 38019 27601 9870 30 Sikkim 394 237 233 31 Tamil Nadu 13346 12678 11017 32 Telangana 10309 6405 2529 33 Tripura 2135 1193 908 34 Uttar Pradesh 49418 18487 1794 35 Uttarakhand 4902 3260 610 36 West Bengal 15479 9727 8480 Total 3,94,924 2,60,412 83,813 Source: UDISE+ 2024-25