CHENNAI: Bodhan AI, an IIT Madras-incubated Centre of Excellence for AI in Education, on Friday announced a national programme to train one million teachers in AI-enabled teaching practices by 2027.

The initiative, titled ‘AI Literacy for Teachers’, was unveiled by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan during the IIT-M Technology Summit at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi earlier this week.

Positioned as a large-scale capacity-building programme for educators, the initiative seeks to embed AI tools into routine classroom functions including lesson planning, assessments, multilingual content preparation and administrative workflows. Calling the programme a key step towards building a future-ready education ecosystem, Pradhan said, “The initiative aligns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Viksit Bharat and aims to create an India-centric and responsible AI framework in education. Empowering teachers with AI capabilities will be central to shaping an inclusive and sovereign technology ecosystem.”

IIT-M director V Kamakoti said, “AI literacy among teachers will become essential as technology increasingly reshapes classroom instruction and learning systems. This initiative demonstrates how AI can support teachers in improving pedagogy and learning outcomes across varied educational settings.”

According to Mitesh Khapra, principal investigator, Bodhan AI, “The programme is designed to move beyond basic awareness and promote practical classroom adoption.”

The rollout will begin with pilot phases in collaboration with the Union Education Ministry, Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and state governments, before the first public cohort is launched on Teachers’ Day this year.

Bodhan AI is developing the broader Bharat EduAI Stack, a digital public infrastructure framework aimed at building sovereign AI solutions for India’s education sector.