Dehradun: Visually impaired class 9 students to study AI at NIEPVD

Dehradun: Students from class 9 at the country's premier institution for the visually-impaired NIEPVD may start studying Artificial Intelligence from this year in braille.

Along with AI, the National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (NIEPVD) has also opted for information technology (IT) and physical education under the skill development initiative of New Education Policy-2020.

Explaining the thought process, Amit Sharma, principal of the Model School in NIEPVD, said AI is the future and "we need to prepare the children with visual impairment for it".

"The need to learn AI is already being seen and we do not want our children who are visually impaired to lag behind. Teaching this subject would help them better prepare for the future," he told PTI.

The curriculum of AI subject is being converted into braille and large print format for visually impaired children and may get introduced this year for them, he said.

Sharma said there might be teething issues while introducing the AI syllabus in braille but hoped it to be successful.

"We saw very good responses from our children in IT subjects and many students are eager to learn AI too. We are hoping we will get the same results," he said.

He expected 18-20 children in the beginning to study the subject when it was introduced.

The Central Braille Press is currently in the process of converting AI books into braille for the children with visual impairment.

"We hope by next month the process would be complete and we would be able to introduce it in the curriculum from this session," Sharma said, adding that it would be added from class 9.

He said they are also looking for specialised teachers for teaching AI and also training some faculty in it.