AI Literacy Must Grow with the Learner

AI literacy is often treated as a short orientation: explain generative AI, demonstrate a prompt, warn about hallucinations and ask learners to use the tool responsibly. That approach is too thin. It mistakes exposure for formation and assumes that the same lesson can serve a young pupil, an undergraduate, a theological learner, a pastor and an institutional leader.

On 25 October 2026, The Indian Express reported that India's National Council of Educational Research and Training had developed an introductory Computational Thinking and Artificial Intelligence module for Classes 9–12. The reported design begins with no assumed AI knowledge and uses discussion, practical exercise, experimentation and reflection to address how AI works, what it can and cannot do, data privacy, misinformation, fairness, digital safety and critical verification. Activities may be conducted with or without digital devices, while human judgement, creativity and ethical responsibility remain central. This is current journalistic reporting of a national curriculum announcement, not independent evidence of classroom implementation or learning outcomes. The Indian Express, 25 October 2026

The development matters beyond one country because it makes a neglected curriculum principle visible. AI literacy must grow with the learner. It should be sequenced, practised, assessed and revisited as responsibility increases. A learner should not move from ignorance to unrestricted tool use in a single workshop; nor should an institution confuse a policy acknowledgement with demonstrated…