New initiative launched to equip teachers with AI skills

In a step aimed at transforming school education in India, Bodhan AI on Sunday announced the launch of its “AI Literacy for Teachers” programme, a national-scale initiative aimed at training more than one million teachers in artificial intelligence for everyday teaching by 2027.

Bodhan AI is a Centre of Excellence in AI for Education incubated at IIT Madras. The initiative seeks to reimagine classroom teaching by positioning AI not as an add-on tool, but as a core teaching assistant embedded across lesson planning, content creation, assessments and student feedback systems.

The programme will be rolled out in phases, beginning with pre-pilots and pilot projects in the coming months, followed by the launch of the first public cohort on Teachers’ Day (September 5). The initiative aims to scale up to one million teachers by 2027.

Prof V Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras, said, “As AI begins to reshape education, building AI literacy among teachers becomes foundational to ensuring meaningful adoption. This initiative demonstrates how AI can be integrated into everyday teaching practices, enabling teachers to enhance pedagogy, improve efficiency and deliver better learning outcomes at scale.”

Dr Mitesh Khapra, Principal Investigator at Bodhan AI, said, “Our goal is simple but ambitious — to make AI a trusted co-pilot for every teacher in India. This programme moves beyond awareness to real, daily usage, helping teachers save time, improve instructional quality and focus more on what truly matters: student engagement and learning.”