Punjab’s plan to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) in government schools has sparked confusion among teachers, who are unsure how it differs from the Centre’s ongoing “Mission Raftaar” project.Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains recently announced that AI will be taught from Classes I to XII in all government schools. He said over 12,000 computer faculty members were being trained as AI teachers, while nearly 2 lakh teachers from other subjects would also be trained in phases. AI textbooks were expected to reach schools within 15 days. The programme would eventually cover more than 25,000 schools, benefiting nearly 31.5 lakh students, he said.Bains stressed that the state’s initiative was “totally different” from Mission Raftaar, which is limited to PM SHRI (Prime Minister Schools for Rising India) institutions. Under the central project, teachers were trained at premier institutes such as IITs and IISc to build advanced IT skills. In Punjab, 356 PM SHRI schools would implement the AI module in the first phase, including 23 in Ludhiana. District Education Officer Dimple Madan said the Mission Raftaar applied only to PM SHRI schools, while the state’s AI curriculum would be introduced in every government school. However, teachers remain sceptical about the initiative. Kulwant Singh Pandori, a senior computer teacher, said while some educators had got training at the IISc, there was no clarity on when the curriculum would be implemented. Democratic Teachers’ Union president Daljit Singh Samrala criticised the move, citing poor infrastructure, lack of labs and inadequate Internet facilities. Computer teachers described the initiative as “hollow”, claiming they had no guidance on what to teach.