Kerala govt plans to develop state-owned AI engine for schools this year

After imparting training to school teachers about the use and the inclusion of the fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) textbooks, the Kerala government is now planning to develop a state-owned AI engine for schools.

State General Education Minister V Sivankutty on Saturday announced that an AI engine will be developed this year, under the leadership of Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), within the academic framework, an official statement said.

The minister was speaking after inaugurating the State Camp of Little KITEs at the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS) campus here.

The minister also announced the completion of the distribution of 29,000 Robotic Kits in schools, undertaken by KITE, the technology arm of the state General Education Department.

The Open Hardware based Robotic Kits, which are deployed to schools by the KITE, comprises of Arduino Uno Rev3, LEDs, SG90 Mini Servo Motor, LDR Light Sensor Module, IR Sensor Module, Active Buzzer Module, Push Button, Bread Board, Jumper wires and Resistors.

Sivankutty also highlighted that instead of isolated success stories, more companies should adopt the example of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL), Qburst Technologies and Canara Bank, who have contributed from their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds to make robotic education accessible to all school children in Kerala.

The minister stated that critical facts such as issues arising from excessive use of digital devices by children and combating fake news have been included in the ICT textbooks in school syllabus and it should be addressed more effectively.

Kadakampally Surendran MLA, Anvar Sadath, CEO, KITE and Sunil T T, Director, ICFOSS also spoke during the inaugural session, the statement said.

The two-day event also features interactive sessions by Prahlad Vadakkepat from the University of Singapore, Achuthsankar S Nair from the Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Kerala and other experts.

Kerala, last year, provided hands-on training in AI for thousands of teachers in state-run schools, which was a first of its kind initiative in the country. It was envisaged to provide them with the necessary AI expertise, official sources said.