As artificial intelligence rapidly reshapes classrooms and careers, education leaders on Friday launched the Humain AI Literacy Mission (HAILM), a nationwide initiative that aims to bring structured AI education to over 2 crore school students in the next three years, with 750 schools already signing up at launch.
The mission, aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the vision of “AI for All”, seeks to equip students, teachers and school leaders with AI skills while emphasising ethics, critical thinking and responsible use of the technology.
Announcing the programme, Manit Jain, Chief Visionary of the mission, said India could not afford to treat AI as a passing trend. Citing estimates by the McKinsey Global Institute, he said the AI revolution was unfolding at “10 times the speed, 300 times the scale and 3,000 times the impact” of the Industrial Revolution.
“The tsunami is obviously here, and we will have to teach our children how to surf because otherwise everyone will get swept away,” Jain said.
He said schools are eager to adopt AI but are held back by a lack of time, concerns over cheating and the absence of a structured implementation framework. At the same time, he warned <a href="https://absafricatv.com/ethiopians-march-against-alleged-forced-mobilisation-in-tigray/” title=”Ethiopians march against alleged forced mobilisation in Tigray”>against blind dependence on AI, saying the technology could dehumanise education if not accompanied by human values and critical thinking.
“AI is a much bigger thing than social media. We cannot leave it to children to figure it out on their own. They need to understand both the opportunities and the risks,” he said.
The programme will initially be offered in English and Hindi through a mobile-based learning management system. The foundation-level course will be free for all schools, while advanced programmes will be available at subsidised rates of ₹150 for government school students and ₹300-500 for private school students.
The initiative features separate AI learning pathways for students in Classes 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12, exposing them to age-appropriate technologies ranging from Scratch and Blockly to large language models (LLMs), natural language processing, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and AI agents. Teachers and principals will also undergo dedicated training to integrate AI into classrooms and school administration.
HAILM CEO Amit Yadav said the programme was designed as a value addition rather than a new curriculum.
“This is not a curriculum but a structured programme. Around 60-70 per cent of the content focuses on AI and technology, while 30-40 per cent is devoted to values, ethics and responsible AI—areas that are largely missing from mainstream education,” he said.
Yadav said the programme was board-agnostic, aligned with global frameworks including those of the UNDP, OECD and the European Union, instead of any single school board. While most participating schools currently belong to CBSE, ICSE and IB boards, proposals have already been submitted to the governments of Haryana and Delhi for expansion into state-board schools.
The mission will be rolled out in three phases—AI learning modules, a nationwide AI Olympiad where students solve real-world challenges, and a National Grand Finale in New Delhi featuring the top 3,000 students and 300 teachers.
To address concerns over children’s growing dependence on AI, the platform uses an AI character for younger learners to explicitly teach them that AI is not a human being and should never replace real human relationships.
Yadav argued that AI adoption in schools would succeed only if educators evolve alongside students.
“Engagement of principals and teachers is more important than student engagement alone. Otherwise, children may become AI-ready while the adults guiding them are left behind,” he said.
- Artificial Intelligence
