Meta joins CBSE to train 10 million students, 1 million teachers in digital safety, AR

Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday announced that the company will expand its partnership with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to provide a curriculum on digital safety, online well-being and augmented reality (AR) for over 10 million students and 1 million teachers in India.

In addition, with the government's vision of universalising education, Meta and CBSE will help democratise the high school curriculum by allowing students access to quality educational content online through modules which would be made available on CBSE's website.

"I am really excited about this partnership and I think it is a huge opportunity to [invest in] this entrepreneurial spirit and bring some of these tools around the metaverse, [AR], and training to the education system here in India," Zuckerberg said at Meta's 'Fuel for India, 2021' virtual event.

Over the next three years, the partnership also aims to empower educators with new-age tools and skills needed to nurture the Generation Z and Generation Alpha students into responsible digital citizens.

Aligned to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Meta and CBSE will collaborate on content curation and development of curriculum integrating immersive technologies like AR and virtual reality (VR) that is relevant for the evolving in a digital landscape.

"This partnership will help equip our teachers with requisite skills to effectively use online tools for student engagement," said Biswajit Saha, Director (Skills Education and Trainings), CBSE.

"Understanding that the era of 'Digital India' has begun, we aim to build responsible digital citizens with the introduction of digital citizenship and augmented reality in the curriculum, along with providing quality educational content for all," Saha added.

The first phase of 'FB for Education' initiative launched in June 2020 with an aim to prepare students and teachers for the future of work and creating a safe online environment and learning experience, witnessed over 500,000 students show interest for digital safety and online well-being and more than 14,000 teachers applied for training in AR.