Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s vision will see 160,000 teachers receive artificial intelligence training under the newly launched AI Curriculum and Training Initiative. The initiative marks a significant expansion of AI focused capacity building within the province’s education sector, aiming to equip a substantial portion of Punjab’s teaching workforce with skills relevant to incorporating artificial intelligence into classroom instruction.
Punjab Chief Minister’s Advisor on AI and Initiative, Ali Dar, addressed participants as chief guest at the launch ceremony, outlining the scope and purpose of the programme. He said thousands of students would also benefit from AI training under the broader initiative, adding that training 160,000 teachers would play a key role in promoting artificial intelligence education across the province. This framing positions the teacher training component as a foundational step intended to create a ripple effect, equipping educators with the skills needed to subsequently pass AI literacy and applied knowledge on to their students at scale.
Ali Dar said the main purpose of introducing AI into the curriculum is to train teachers according to the latest state of the art standards, reflecting an effort to align Punjab’s educational workforce with current developments in AI technology and pedagogy rather than relying on outdated or purely theoretical training material. He expressed hope that Punjab’s AI based educational syllabus would create better opportunities for students in the future, suggesting the initiative is intended to have long term implications for how the province’s students are prepared for a job market increasingly shaped by AI related skills and tools. The launch of the AI Curriculum and Training Initiative brought together multiple institutional stakeholders, including the School Education Department, the Punjab Education Curriculum, Training and Assessment Authority, PMIU-PESRP, UNICEF, and the Office of AI. This wide range of participating organizations, spanning provincial education administration, curriculum development, program monitoring, and international development support through UNICEF, reflects the scale of coordination required to roll out a teacher training initiative of this size across Punjab’s public education system.
The launch event was framed around discussing the changing landscape of teaching, learning, and education in the age of artificial intelligence, positioning the initiative as part of a broader institutional response to how AI is expected to reshape classroom instruction going forward. With 160,000 teachers targeted for training, the programme represents one of the largest coordinated AI education initiatives introduced within Punjab’s public school system so far, adding to the province’s ongoing broader curriculum reforms that have also included plans to introduce AI education directly into student coursework from Class I through Class XII.
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