The per-board regulatory landscape from Deshika's brain. Anchored to public-source citations: PIB notifications, IBO Mumbai 2026 principles, CISCE syllabi, MoE press releases, state-board circulars.
CBSECBSE Class-3 AI mandate (AY 2026-27)
The strictest hard deadline in Indian K-12 AI. MoE notification 30-Oct-2025 + CBSE follow-up circular: AI becomes compulsory in Class 3 from AY 2026-27 (April 2026), then progressively rolled up. Class 9-10 will be board-examined on AI from AY 2027-28. The Class 3 mandate is non-elective — every CBSE-affiliated school must comply.
What this means for your school: if you're CBSE, the next 18 months are not optional. You need a Class 3 AI curriculum, a vetted AI tool the policy can authorise, a parent-comms plan, and an AI policy your trustees can sign before the April rollout. Kendriya Vidyalaya (1,289 schools) and Navodaya (661 schools) inherit this automatically as central-govt schools.
What's gated: affiliation renewals will reference AI-readiness. Sahodaya cluster meets are now AI-agenda-dominated. Most early CBSE adopters spent Q1 2026 writing policy and Q2 2026 ordering tools.
Sources: PIB 30-Oct-2025 notification · CBSE circular Acad-93/2025 · brain page cbse-ai-mandate
CISCECISCE — Robotics & AI, Subject 66 + ISC 883
No compulsion. CISCE has not mandated AI as a compulsory subject. Instead, AI is offered as Group III elective Subject 66 (Robotics & AI) for ICSE Class 9-10 and Subject 883 for ISC Class 11-12. The first ICSE-66 board exam ran 23 February 2026.
What this means for your school: if you're CISCE-affiliated (ICSE / ISC), AI is opt-in at student level. You can offer Subject 66 if you have at least one trained teacher and the resource block in your timetable. CISCE has published syllabus + sample papers for both subjects; they read more academic than CBSE's curriculum (more discrete-math, less applied-tool).
What's coming: CISCE indicated (May 2026 council note) it is monitoring student-uptake of Subject 66 for 3 years before deciding on broader compulsion. Most ICSE schools currently treat AI as a co-curricular activity, not a board-exam subject.
Sources: CISCE Subject 66 syllabus (Feb 2025 release) · ISC 883 syllabus · brain page icse-cisce-ai-mandate
STATEState boards — Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Tripura, others
None of the 25+ state boards has a CBSE-equivalent compulsory AI mandate as of May 2026. But four states have named, public AI-in-schools partners and pilots running:
- Karnataka. Shiksha Copilot — Microsoft + Sikshana Foundation, teacher-side AI assistant for govt + aided schools. Started 2024. State-DSC + KSEEB-aware.
- Chhattisgarh. Magic Bus — 800 govt schools across Bastar division, AI-supplemented teacher training + student literacy. Started 2025.
- Assam. IIT-Guwahati + Tata-NELCO partnership for Assamese-medium AI curriculum content for SEBA-affiliated schools. Pilot-stage as of Q1 2026.
- Tripura. Mission Vidyajyoti (state) + IIT-G discussion ongoing for Bengali-medium and Kokborok-medium AI material. Earliest stage.
What this means for your school: if you're a state-board school in one of these four states, your state has a first-mover partner already. Deshika sits alongside them as the parent-policy + vernacular safety + board-exam-practice layer those partners don't ship. Other states (UP, MP, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala etc.) are in earlier stages — state SCERT-level discussions, no published partners yet.
Sources: KA state DSC orders · CG Magic Bus disclosures · IIT-G + Tata-NELCO Q1 2026 brief · brain page state-board-ai-mandate
IBIBO — Appendix 6 + 5 March 2026 Mumbai AI Design Principles
No compulsion. IBO Appendix 6 (May 2023) authorises AI use in PYP/MYP/DP assessment with caveats. The 5 March 2026 Mumbai Symposium produced 7 AI Design Principles (the most operationally specific guidance the IB has issued) — but these are principles, not a curriculum.
What this means for your school: if you're an IB World School (~270 in India), AI policy and academic-integrity authentication is pushed DOWN to the IB coordinator and the school's leadership. There is no IBO-published curriculum unit. You are expected to author your own AI policy aligned to the Mumbai principles, train your coordinators on AI-assisted-work detection, and document your authentication procedures. The DP Theory of Knowledge (TOK) curriculum has been informally expanded to include AI-epistemology.
What's coming: IBO has signalled it will issue clearer subject-level AI guidance for the DP 2027 cohort. Until then, the responsibility is the school's.
Sources: IBO Appendix 6 (May 2023) · IBO Mumbai Symposium 5 March 2026 · brain page ib-ibo-ai-policy
CAMBRIDGECambridge IGCSE — coursework rule + 0478 Topic 6
Guidance, not mandate. Cambridge International has issued AI usage guidance for coursework (Sep 2023 + Q1 2025 updates) — students may use AI for ideation but not for submission; all AI use must be declared. AI content (Topic 6) sits at ~8-10% paper weight in the Computer Science 0478 syllabus.
What this means for your school: if you're Cambridge-affiliated (~700+ Indian schools), your Exams Officer and Head of Computing carry the AI workload. Cambridge expects schools to maintain documented AI-use-declaration logs for any submitted coursework. Cambridge has not mandated curricular AI in subjects other than Computer Science, but the Pearson Edexcel parallel route is published similar guidance.
What's coming: Cambridge has indicated a 2027-2028 review cycle that may upgrade guidance to mandate; until then the Indian Cambridge schools are setting their own bar.
Sources: Cambridge International AI-use guidance (Q1 2025) · IGCSE 0478 syllabus · brain page igcse-cambridge-ai-policy
GOVTGovernment schools — three stacked mandates
Three layered policy frameworks govern govt schools.
- National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) — strategic framework, includes AI/ICT integration aspirations from Foundational Stage.
- National Curriculum Framework 2023 (NCF for School Education) — operationalises NEP, names AI literacy as Stage 3 (Preparatory) and Stage 4 (Middle) outcome.
- MoE 30-Oct-2025 notification — the binding instrument: Class 3 mandate AY 2026-27 for CBSE-affiliated central-govt schools (KVS + NVS) and an aspirational compliance for state-managed schools (where state SCERT prepares the syllabus).
What this means: 1,289 Kendriya Vidyalayas + 661 Navodayas + ~10 lakh state-managed govt schools fall under different layers of this stack. KVS + NVS inherit CBSE timing automatically. State-managed govt-school AI rollout depends on each SCERT preparing Hindi / regional-language syllabus material and Samagra Shiksha funding the teacher upskilling cycle (NISHTHA platform, ~37 lakh teachers).
What's gated: Samagra Shiksha PAB allocations for FY 2026-27 include an AI-teacher-training line item for the first time. State-budget approvals roll through Q2-Q3 2026.
Sources: NEP 2020 · NCF-SE 2023 · MoE notification 30-Oct-2025 · Samagra Shiksha PAB 2026 · NISHTHA portal · brain page govt-school-ai-curriculum