Thiruvananthapuram: In a pioneering initiative, Kerala has emerged as the first state in the country to make robotics education mandatory for all 4.3 lakh students of class 10, starting from the upcoming academic year on June 2.

An official statement on Sunday said that the integration of robotics into the tenth-grade ICT textbook, specifically the sixth chapter titled ‘The World of Robots’ in the first volume, will empower students to explore fundamental robotics concepts through engaging activities.

K Anvar Sadath, CEO of Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) and Chairman of the ICT Textbook Committee, said in a statement that concepts such as circuit construction, utilising sensors and actuators, and controlling electronic devices using computer programming will be explored.

According to a PTI report, KITE, the technical arm of the General Education Department of the Kerala government, has already distributed 29,000 robotic kits to high schools across the state to ensure the effective implementation of this curriculum. "This ambitious initiative builds upon Kerala's prior success in making Artificial Intelligence (AI) learning accessible to all seventh-grade students, another national first achieved in the previous academic year," Sadath said.

The official statement further said that AI learning has now been incorporated into the ICT textbooks for grades 8, 9, and 10 as well. The practical experience gained from the robotics curriculum piloted for Little KITEs (Kerala's IT club for students) has been instrumental in shaping this comprehensive rollout for all class 10 students, the statement added. The initial hands-on activity in the textbook challenges students to utilise components from the provided robotic kits such as Arduino breadboards, IR sensors, servo motors, and jumper wires to construct an automated sanitiser dispenser that activates upon detecting a hand, it said.

Students will also delve into creating AI-powered smart home automation systems, including face-recognition-enabled smart doors. To facilitate this, they will utilize the 'Face Detection Built-in Model' within the Pictoblocks software's programming IDE, leveraging webcams on laptops and Arduino kits supplied by KITE to program door-opening mechanisms, PTI reported.

KITE has already conducted the first phase of training on the new tenth-grade ICT textbook for 9,924 teachers. Sadath said dedicated robotics training for teachers will be organised in July. Furthermore, KITE will ensure the availability of additional robotic kits and extend support to unaided schools following the state syllabus that may require them. The ICT textbook is being provided to all students in Malayalam, English, Tamil, and Kannada mediums, the official statement added.