The Central Board of Secondary Education is rolling out free online AI bootcamps for students in Classes 9 and 10 alongside capacity-building programmes for teachers in higher classes, scheduled in phased cohorts from September through December and supported by partners including IBM, NIELIT, Intel India and the Atal Innovation Mission. The initiative pairs hands-on modules with mentorship and a national showcase—India AI Impact Festival 2025—inviting student and educator projects under the theme “AI Innovation for Social Impact.”

CBSE emphasises ethical AI, data literacy and problem-driven project work; schools are instructed to register students and nominate teachers for the IBM-supported capacity programmes. The bootcamps include low-bandwidth resources and asynchronous materials to accommodate connectivity constraints in many regions, aiming to democratise AI exposure beyond elite urban schools. The festival will provide mentoring, recognition and potential pathways from student projects to incubation or further technical support; initial submissions have a late-August deadline for shortlisting. Advocates see the push as a way to stimulate STEM interest, seed school-level innovation ecosystems and create an evidence base for national AI pedagogy.

Critics call for longitudinal evaluation to verify learning outcomes and guard against over-reliance on technology at the expense of foundational learning. Success is likely to be judged by participant reach, project quality and demonstrable social impact, with special attention paid to uptake in government and low-resource schools to ensure the programme reduces rather than widens educational inequities. Teacher readiness and systemic assessment frameworks will be crucial to translating exposure into sustained capability and tangible career or civic benefits for students.