SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2024
This is an initiative to educate students regarding the subjects which are demanded universally while also teaching them traditional ones.
Intelligence is what separates the human race from the rest of the species. Humans were able to take over the world due to their capacity to analyse, reasoning skills, intellectual ability and the expertise in being visionary. However, the man-made computers and robots which run on artificial intelligence are competing with the men themselves. Artificial Intelligence-AI, is now a reality which is becoming universal and is considered to last for a long time in the future. Hence, Goa Board's decision to introduce this subject to the students is a notable one. A few years ago, computer education was touted to be the future which has become the reality and many tasks are now replaced by computer programming. AI is only the next level in computer programming and for that, having computer laboratories in each school is necessary. Computer education as a subject was introduced a few years ago in the State and so, most of the schools are already equipped with such laboratories as well as computer teachers.
This should be helpful in teaching AI with relative ease. The Board is also pondering upon implementing the subject for 10th Board exams and is working towards arranging 500 students from 50 schools to answer the subject during the first year of its introduction. The Board has also provisioned for the subject to be taken as an optional one for the rest of the students from next year onwards. If higher education is made available for the respective subject in the State then Goan students will be able to make great progress in the near future.
AI is a machine-based behaviour which is smarter than human or natural intelligence of other animals. In computer science, AI's behaviour is studied as smart agent research. The success rate of any equipment is increased when it studies the environment close to its proximity and then acts accordingly. The concept of AI is applicable when any machine which imitates cognitive functions and forms relationships with humans. Although the subject has come into more prominent light now, it is an old concept. AI is a branch of computer science which is related to making computers or machines as smart as humans. It is believed that the term was coined by computer scientist John McCarthy in 1956 during a meeting of Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Dartmouth. A chess-playing computer system called Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in a chess match in 1997 and it is then the topic of artificial intelligence became much talked about. The State government has now taken the help of AI to regulate traffic and people are understandably curious about the system.
School students while learning mathematics or other subjects cannot be taught advanced subjects which are related to traditional ones. Most of the students also do not have a subject such as programming. Hence, the Board's decision to create a syllabus related to AI is in the best interest of the students. The State government has decided to implement NEP for pre-primary and at degree level and according to the new policy, 5th std will be considered as primary education. In Goa, primary education is considered from 1st to 4th std while 5th to 10th std schooling is considered to be of secondary level. That is why many government schools in the State are equipped with two classrooms and only one teacher. The new education policy has provision to give school admission to children who have completed 3 years of age and that puts a question mark over the anganwadis and balwadis.
Majority of the pre-primary schools are private and the government has asked to get them approved. Again, there is a question of whether these schools will be receiving the government grants once they get approval. With chaos surrounding the education sector, the decision of the Board to introduce AI for students brings some consolation. Physical education has stayed in a neglected state till date. Marks for sports players are given but since they were only kept at assessment level, the subject of physical education has never been looked at with enough seriousness.
In a welcoming move however, the Board has decided to make the physical education subject as an educational tool too. Hence, the students will be able to score marks by studying the subject just like the rest of the subjects. When the State Board, which took 8 months to create a web portal to implement NEP, chooses a different path, their efforts must be applauded.
