Government schools, already facing an acute shortage of teachers, are now struggling to complete the syllabus as the ongoing state-level training programme on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for teachers has pulled several staff members out of classrooms ahead of the Summative Assessment-I (SA-I) exams from October 24.

The training, organised by the School Education department, began on October 9 and concludes on Friday (October 17). It follows the state government’s decision to integrate AI concepts into the school curriculum and introduce a book on digital learning for classes 6 to 9 to build digital skills among students.

Subject teachers of Maths, English, Social and Physical Sciences are attending the training sessions. However, teachers say the timing has affected academic work, with many classes left unattended. They have urged the department to hold such training during summer vacations instead.

M Ravinder, a mathematics teacher from a government school in Secunderabad, told TNIE, “Introducing AI concepts is a welcome move, but conducting training now is ill-timed. We already lost working days to heavy rains and Dasara holidays. With exams near, this training is further delaying syllabus completion, especially for Class 10 students.”

Ahmed Khan, another teacher, said, “With limited staff, we are already struggling to manage regular classes. Because of this training, many periods are going vacant just days before the exams. It would have been better to conduct the training after SA-I.”

[Article by Meghna Nath of The New Indian Express]