New Delhi, July 31 -- In April this year, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) introduced 'Computational Thinking and Understanding AI' (CT&AI) as a mandatory part of the curriculum for students of Classes 3-8, making India one of the few countries in the world to introduce AI at the foundational level. The idea is to provide essential training to teachers, enabling them to inculcate CT&AI in their respective subjects and foster an ethical approach to using AI among learners.
This is an important step that recognises that learners are being increasingly influenced and shaped by AI interfaces, irrespective of educational institutions' readiness to acknowledge or adopt them. Hence, moving towards a policy-led intervention in incorporating AI into the school curriculum is important to update and enhance pedagogical practices and student learning. As early as 2019, CBSE had introduced AI as an optional subject for students of Classes 9-11.
AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and other domain-specific assistants have entered classrooms and study circles across the globe. The reality, however, is that students are way ahead. A 2024 study found that, in India, over 80% of students are using AI tools unethically. Further, it found that 46.9% of students use AI in coursework, 39% for assessments, while 7% completely rely on AI. Given this, it is important to ensure that young learners are not blindly embracing AI but are also equipped to actively navigate its risks and rewards. Especially for many first-generation learners, these tools provide a type of support that most educational systems are still working to provide. The result is a fascinating paradox of accessibility. While AI may have the potential to enable learning for a wider audience, it is still mostly available to the digitally educated.
The question to ask, then, is: If students start to depend on AI for tasks such as summarising lectures and solving problems, will they still learn to think independently and critically?
Although AI has the potential to be inclusive, the opposite would be true without the efforts of educational institutions. There are pros and cons to using AI in education. Undoubtedly, AI can provide personalised learning for students and reduce grading pressure for teachers, while creating scope for designing advanced tasks and classroom activities. There are also concerns about students losing their ability to think for themselves and work with peers.
The bigger worry is that students will start to outsource parts of the critical process that they are supposed to engage in themselves. For many, the most valuable learning experiences come from revising and improving an incomplete argument or working through and understanding opposing views. These experiences represent the most beneficial struggles. AI is designed to remove obstacles and struggles. The concern is that education will start to value correct answers more than the process of learning. For this reason, the challenge for educators is more a challenge to the imagination than a technology-based one: to preserve spaces in learning where students think for themselves, ask questions on their own, and arrive at answers independently before turning to AI and after using it.
On the other hand, a 2026 Stanford study reveals that AI tools specifically built for education help build independent thinking and reasoning. They can promote stronger and more efficient teaching practices. The study recognises AI's potential to improve equity in education. In doing so, it is imperative to balance the use of AI tools in a manner that ensures teachers are trained to help students understand the impacts of AI while also supporting their mental well-being.
The right tools allow the use of AI and, more importantly, the use of AI for good. A much-overlooked skill that falls into the former category is prompt engineering. It is definitely more than just asking questions of AI; rather, it is about developing the ability to ask thought-provoking, complex, and morally sound questions. It is crucial to teach learners the discipline of AI before and after its use. It is equally vital to help them figure out how to answer the questions they ask AI and to realise that AI has limitations and that they should not necessarily accept everything it produces as the ultimate answer.
How do educators facilitate this kind of learning? Responsible assignments that encourage collaborative reflection offer a good start. An example would be an instructor assigning students a project in which both AI-generated content and human research are utilised. Students would then be tasked with comparing the processes followed, as well as the outcomes of each. Other examples of this type of assignment could include smaller groups using AI to generate a base set of ideas, followed by a class discussion to critically assess the ideas generated, as well as their reliability and overall quality. Using AI responsibly allows students to focus on the core, higher-level skills of education.
Discussions on policy have begun to focus on teaching students to use AI while considering plagiarism, privacy, integrity, and other responsible-use issues. While teaching the ethical use of AI is important, it is not enough. Students need to realise that AI outputs are not constructed without bias. AI outputs are influenced by people, training data, culture, and the framing of different institutions. Because of this, AI has the capacity to reinforce systems of thought, shape knowledge, and perpetuate various biases.
Education should focus on encouraging students to think critically about AI rather than merely teaching them how to use it. Students need to understand the design of AI systems, the data that influences AI outputs, and who is included or excluded in their design. Now, more than ever, it is important to think critically about the AI systems that are used to communicate and frame the information we are expected to accept as knowledge. Rather than using technology without reflection, students should become active users who evaluate the systems that communicate with and influence them, thereby shaping their understanding of reality.
While it would be safe to say that CBSE's recent measures are well-timed, the policy will only be effective if it addresses the core challenges faced by institutions, such as insufficient high-speed internet, inadequate funding, and varying levels of digital literacy. AI is changing education, and we can change our definition of teaching. It is easy for technology to take over, but we need to create spaces for human judgment. We need to remember the importance of empathy, and, especially in teaching, we have to keep learners thinking. In the age of AI, teaching is not about competing with machines. It is about preserving the 'human' in learners.
Views expressed are personal.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.