Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 8 (IANS): Kerala Minister for General Education Department V. Sivankutty on Saturday announced that an AI engine will be developed this year in continuation with the growing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), training 80,000 teachers and the inclusion of the fundamentals of AI in the ICT textbooks.

The minister announced the programme while inaugurating the State Camp of Little KITEs at the ICFOSS campus at Trivandrum, where he also announced the completion of the distribution of 29,000 Robotic Kits in schools, undertaken by KITE.

He said this will be done under the leadership of Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), within the academic frameworks.

KITE is a state government enterprise set up to foster, promote and implement modernisation of educational institutions in Kerala.

An infrastructure division has also been set up under KITE for upgrading the infrastructural facilities in schools.

The spectrum of KITE includes information and communication technology, capacity building, content development, connectivity, e-learning, satellite-based education, support and maintenance mechanisms, e-governance and related activities.

The Minister 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 said that critical facts such as issues arising from the excessive use of digital devices by children and combating fake news have been included in the ICT textbooks in the school syllabus.

He added that continuous vigilance is essential beyond this to address these concerns effectively.

The ongoing event also features interactive sessions by top experts in the field and as part of the camp, an industry visit was also arranged for the students, in which they observed and understood products related to areas such as drone technology, assistive technology, 3D printing, weather monitoring systems, media production and animation houses.