Reference · CBSE 2026-27 theme and CPD hours
What CBSE asks of schools this year — and how this programme maps to it
The CBSE facts on this page were read from the Board’s own circulars and guidelines and are cited by name. Our alignment notes are marked as ours. Where the two meet, the school decides how each session is recorded.
Source: CBSE CPD Guidelines 2025 (TRG-02/2025, 01 April 2025).
CPD Guidelines 2025
The 50-hour CPD year
Every teacher completes a set number of professional-development hours a year: half through CBSE or Government training, half organised by the school. The school-based half is split across the three NPST domains — and that is the shape this programme is built on. The figures themselves are in the table below, from CBSE.
| CBSE/NPST domain | School-based hours (of 25) | Total hours across both halves (of 50) | This programme (of 25) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain I Core Values and Ethics | 6 h | 12 h | 6 h |
| Domain II Knowledge and Practice | 8 h | 24 h | 8 h |
| Domain III Professional Growth and Development | 11 h | 14 h | 11 h |
| Total | 25 h | 50 h | 25 h |
- •The “Total” column is CBSE’s combined figure for the domain: the school-based hours plus the hours delivered through CBSE or Government training.
- •The “This programme” column is our own mapping of the 25 taught hours onto the domains by content. It is not an instruction on how to record the hours — see “How the hours are recorded” below.
- •Source: CBSE CPD Guidelines 2025 (TRG-02/2025, 01 April 2025).
CBSE Notification TRG-02, 09 April 2026
The 2026-27 training theme and its seven sub-themes
CBSE names one training theme each year and asks schools to build teacher capacity around it. For 2026-27 the theme is Computational Thinking and Understanding Artificial Intelligence. The seven sub-themes below are quoted as CBSE lists them.
Training theme for 2026-27
“Computational Thinking (CT) and Understanding Artificial Intelligence (AI)”
| # | The seven sub-themes |
|---|---|
| 1 | Foundations of Computational Thinking (CT) and AI Readiness |
| 2 | From Play to Abstraction: Progressive Pedagogy for Computational Thinking |
| 3 | Mathematics as the Cornerstone of Computational Thinking and AI readiness |
| 4 | Interdisciplinary Connections: CT across Subjects at Middle Stage |
| 5 | AI in Real-World Contexts |
| 6 | Assessment and Pedagogy in CT and AI |
| 7 | Ethics and Responsible use of AI |
Suggested activities for 2026-27
Three CT & AI activities CBSE suggests — and where we fit
CBSE suggests three ways a school or district can build capacity on the theme, each with CPD hours attached. The first two are school-hosted; the third is run by the Board. Our role in each is stated plainly.
| Activity | Organiser | Mode | CPD | Our role (PrepGraph’s note, not CBSE’s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Activity 1 District Level Deliberations on CT & AI (Workshop) A forum where teachers present case papers on CT & AI practice (Format F1), judged by an Appreciation Committee (Format F4); topic, venue and inviting experts are the organiser's responsibility; training records must be maintained. | A volunteering "Lead School", via the Sahodaya School Complex or a group of willing schools | Offline, one day | 6 hours of school-based CPD under Domain-II | Help a volunteering Lead School host the day: the hosting checklist, Format F1 coaching for the teachers who present, the Format F2 report, and an expert-led session inside the day. Any PrepGraph demonstration is separate, clearly optional, and outside the counted hours. The Lead School organises and records the activity; we do not run or certify it. The CT & AI workshop support format |
| Activity 2 Expert-Led Talks on CT & AI in Schools Participation / attendance records must be maintained for CPD-hours integration. | A Lead School, as a specialised online/offline session on any sub-theme | Half day, facilitated by internal or external experts invited by the school | 3 hours of school-based CPD under Domain-II | Be the external expert the Lead School invites: a half-day session built from Modules 1 and 2 (what AI is and is not; responsible use). The school keeps the attendance record and decides how the hours are recorded. Modules 1 and 2 |
| Activity 3 Regional Workshops / Orientations on CT & AI Schools nominate teachers as per CoE jurisdiction. | CBSE Centres of Excellence (hosted by the Board) | Online registration, ₹700 fee | 6 hours of Board-conducted CPD under Domain-II | None. These are Board-conducted workshops run through CBSE Centres of Excellence; we list them so a school sees the full picture of the year. |
Sources: CBSE Notification TRG-02, 09 April 2026 · CBSE Guidelines 2026 — District Level Deliberations on CT & AI.
Independent programme, not a CBSE certification.
PrepGraph Academy is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by the Central Board of Secondary Education. Certificates are issued by PrepGraph. The programme is designed around the CBSE 2026-27 training theme and the CBSE/NPST professional-development domains; the host school decides how to record the hours under CBSE’s CPD guidelines and keeps the attendance records.
How this programme maps
Hours by domain, modules by sub-theme, principles by design
Three views of the same alignment: where the 25 hours sit against the school-based CPD year, which CBSE sub-themes each module addresses, and which curriculum principles the sessions are designed to.
Hours by domain — 25 of the school-based 25
How the hours are recorded — the school decides
Our 6 / 8 / 11 split describes how the content of the 25 hours aligns with the three NPST domains. It is the same shape as the school-based CPD year, and that is deliberate — but it is a content mapping, not a recording instruction.
CBSE counts its own CT & AI activities — the half-day expert-led talk (3 hours) and the District Level Deliberation (6 hours) — under Domain-II, Knowledge and Practice. A school may well record a PrepGraph session the same way.
So: the school’s CPD owner decides, session by session, which domain and how many hours to record, and keeps the attendance record. We supply the record template and an agenda for every session so the decision is easy to make and easy to defend.
Module × CBSE sub-theme
A tick means the module’s outcomes and activities address that sub-theme directly. Every module addresses at least one; sub-theme 7 (ethics) runs through Domain I and returns in the practicum.
| Module | Domain | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 · Understanding AI 2 h | I | yes | no | no | no | yes | no | yes |
| M2 · Responsible AI 2 h | I | no | no | no | no | yes | no | yes |
| M3 · The Teacher’s Role 2 h | I | no | no | no | no | yes | yes | yes |
| M4 · CT Across Subjects 2 h | II | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no |
| M5 · AI-Enabled Pedagogy 3 h | II | no | yes | no | no | yes | yes | no |
| M6 · Assessment & Learning Gaps 3 h | II | no | no | no | no | yes | yes | no |
| M7 · Productivity Lab 3 h | III | no | no | no | no | yes | yes | yes |
| M8 · The Teacher Workflow 3 h | III | no | no | no | no | yes | yes | no |
| M9 · Classroom Practicum 3 h | III | no | no | no | no | yes | yes | yes |
| M10 · Reflection & Capstone 2 h | III | no | no | no | no | yes | yes | no |
The seven sub-themes
1Foundations of Computational Thinking (CT) and AI Readiness
2From Play to Abstraction: Progressive Pedagogy for Computational Thinking
3Mathematics as the Cornerstone of Computational Thinking and AI readiness
4Interdisciplinary Connections: CT across Subjects at Middle Stage
5AI in Real-World Contexts
6Assessment and Pedagogy in CT and AI
7Ethics and Responsible use of AI
CBSE curriculum principles we design to
From the CT & AI Curriculum for Classes 3–8 (2026-27). The left column is CBSE’s principle; the right is what it means in this programme.
| CBSE says | In this programme |
|---|---|
| Classes 3–5: CT is integrated into Mathematics and The World Around Us by subject teachers using worksheets — ~50 hours a year. | Module 4 is written for subject teachers first. Its CT activities are worksheet-style tasks a primary Maths or EVS teacher can run in a normal period — not computer-lab exercises. |
| Classes 6–8: advanced CT across all subjects plus an introduction to AI literacy, delivered collaboratively by subject teachers and computer teachers — ~100 hours a year. | Module 4 puts subject teachers and computer teachers on the same chapter task — the interdisciplinary collaboration CBSE describes for Classes 6–8 and names in sub-theme 4 — and the practicum is open to both. |
| Pedagogy is activity-based and experiential: puzzles, structured problems, projects, demonstrations, discussions, debates, reflective exercises. | Facilitator talk is a minority of every session plan. Most agenda minutes are hands-on work, group tasks, reflection or classroom practice; each module page shows the split to the minute. |
| Assessment should move away from summative-only towards continuous, formative, competency-based assessment — problem-solving tasks, project work, reflective journals, teacher observation, rubrics. | Modules 6, 8 and 9 are built on short competency diagnostics, gap analysis and reassessment — not on marks. Certification is assessed on rubrics and classroom evidence, not attendance. |
| The curriculum is platform-agnostic: schools choose tools; free and open-source tools are recommended. | Module 7 uses several AI tools, PrepGraph one among them, and generic prompting gets 30–45 minutes in total. The workflow in Module 8 is taught as pedagogy that any suitable tool could carry. |
| Ethics is explicit: digital footprints, bias, privacy and fairness in AI systems. | Modules 1–3 (six hours, Domain I) cover bias, privacy, digital footprints, academic integrity and the teacher’s accountability before any tool is demonstrated. |
For the academic coordinator
What the school records
The school owns the CPD record. For each session of the programme we supply an agenda and a one-page record sheet; the coordinator fills in the rest in about five minutes.
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Session
Module number and title, date, start and end time, venue (or “online”).
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Domain recorded
Which NPST domain the school records the session under — the school’s decision, noted by the CPD owner.
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Hours
Hours counted for the session, as the school records them.
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Attendance
Names and signatures of the teachers present; late arrivals and early departures noted.
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Facilitator
Name and organisation; marked as internal or external expert.
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Evidence
The session agenda, the sign-in sheet and at least one artefact — an assignment, a worked chapter plan, a practicum log page. Photographs only if the school wishes.
Claim language
What we say — and never say
This wording is enforced across the site, the certificate and the materials a school receives. If you see us break it, tell us.
We say
- PrepGraph Certified AI-Enabled Educator
- 25-hour professional development programme
- Aligned with the CBSE 2026-27 training theme "Computational Thinking and Understanding AI"
- Aligned with the CBSE/NPST professional-development domains
- Delivered as a school-hosted programme; the school records CPD hours as per CBSE guidelines
We never say
- CBSE Certified / CBSE Approved / CBSE Recognised AI teacher (unless CBSE formally grants it)
- "As per CBSE official syllabus"
- Any use of the CBSE logo or emblem
- That a PrepGraph certificate is itself a CBSE CPD certificate
- Outcome claims about student learning from the product ("improves results", "proven impact")
Context
Why we are careful with wording
In July 2024 CBSE publicly disclaimed emails that offered free teacher training on AI “as per CBSE official syllabus”. The Board had sent no such email, and said so.
That episode is the reason this site reads the way it does. Our certificate is a PrepGraph certificate. Our alignment is with the CBSE 2026-27 training theme and the CBSE/NPST domains — the design of the curriculum, not an approval of it. The school records the hours; we supply the templates.
Sources
Read the originals
Every CBSE fact on this page and on this site was read from one of these documents. If CBSE issues a new circular, this page is updated and dated.
Facts on this page last verified against the source documents on 20 August 2026.
Independent programme, not a CBSE certification.
PrepGraph Academy is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by the Central Board of Secondary Education. Certificates are issued by PrepGraph. The programme is designed around the CBSE 2026-27 training theme and the CBSE/NPST professional-development domains; the host school decides how to record the hours under CBSE’s CPD guidelines and keeps the attendance records — we supply the templates.
Want the record templates and a cohort plan for your school?
Tell us your board, grades and teacher count. We reply within two working days with a 12-week plan, the session list by domain, and the CPD record sheet your coordinator keeps.