Kerala Schools Get AI-Powered Digital Upgrade Under Tharapadham

Kerala is rolling out the ‘Tharapadham’ project across its schools as part of a major digital transformation of the public education system, bringing multiple school-management, learning, mentoring and monitoring platforms under a unified framework with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Implemented by the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), the technical arm of the General Education Department, the initiative forms part of the state government’s 100-day action plan aimed at improving the quality and efficiency of public education.

The key feature of Tharapadham is an integrated single sign-on dashboard, allowing users to access Sampoorna, Sampoorna Plus, Samagra, Sahitham and Samanwaya without separate logins. The initiative builds on Kerala’s long-running digital education efforts, which began with the IT@School Project and later evolved into KITE. The organisation now supports more than 16,000 schools and has benefited over 43 lakh students and 1.7 lakh teachers through its technology initiatives.

Under the project, Samagra has been upgraded to Samagra Plus, incorporating AI-enabled academic resources. Teachers of Classes 1 to 10 can prepare teaching manuals based on their scheme of work, while headteachers can review and approve them. The platform also includes classroom observation notes, inspection reports and School Resource Group decisions, with monitoring extending to the state level.

The upgraded Sampoorna Plus will bring together information from government and aided schools as well as CBSE, ICSE, Kendriya Vidyalayas and recognised unaided schools. It will record attendance, examination results and co-curricular assessments for Classes 1 to 12.

Tharapadham will also introduce Samagra Canvas, an online interactive whiteboard for teachers of Classes 1 to 12. Meanwhile, the Sahitham mentoring portal has been updated for revised textbooks. Schools must record mentoring activities and learning progress of students in Classes 1 to 7 from the current academic year.

The rollout comes amid Kerala’s wider AI push. KITE trained 80,000 teachers in AI in 2024, while its technology programmes include robotics and cybersecurity. The state also operates Little KITEs clubs in about 2,100 schools with nearly 1.9 lakh members.

With expanding digital systems, cybersecurity has become a key component. Schools must comply with the Cyber Safety Protocol 2026, including establishing school-level cyber safety committees. KITE will conduct specialised training for teachers and education officers, while district and sub-district officials have been tasked with ensuring timely implementation.