In April 2026, the Government of Telangana launched an AI literacy programme for nearly two million government-school students in Classes 5 to 9, starting with the 2025-26 academic year. The state’s State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT Telangana) has prepared a “Digital Learning” textbook covering data, decision-making systems, and everyday AI applications, with implementation support from the Pi Jam Foundation and Amazon Future Engineer. Lessons run for 20-25 hours per year. To bridge the digital divide, the School Education Department distributed 2,000 laptops to Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas and other state-run institutions and reportedly trained approximately 28,000 teachers. A dedicated state platform, telangana.codemitra.org, has gone live for classroom practice. Telangana’s initiative complements the national CBSE-level AI integration and is positioned as a major subnational implementation of India’s AI-for-all agenda.
Who it affects: ~2 million students in Telangana government schools in Classes 5-9; ~28,000 teachers reportedly trained; Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas; SCERT Telangana; the Pi Jam Foundation and Amazon Future Engineer as delivery partners.
What is notably missing: The announcement describes a government programme rather than a binding state-law mandate; enforcement if schools do not comply is not specified. Private unaided schools are outside scope. Teacher training volume is reported but the content standard is not published. The commercial partnership with Amazon Future Engineer raises similar vendor-alignment questions to other global initiatives. Dedicated long-term budget allocation beyond the 2,000-laptop distribution is not disclosed.