CBSE is moving skill education from “good idea” to classroom reality. Starting January 5, 2026, the board will roll out one-day, face-to-face Capacity Building Programmes (CBPs) for teachers and school leaders to support the mandatory implementation of Skill Education in Classes 6 to 8, using NCERT’s Kaushal Bodh activity books. Under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, skill-based learning is meant to begin early, so that middle school is not just about absorbing content but also about learning how to work with hands, tools, people and real-life problems. For students entering Classes 6–8 in 2026, this is the point where “school” is expected to start looking a little more like the world outside it.
What these CBPs are actually
The CBP is CBSE’s way of closing a gap it has openly flagged: Schools were already told to introduce the new competency-based skill textbooks, but many have not implemented them yet. The January training is designed to ensure schools stop treating skill education as an occasional activity and start running it as a structured part of the weekly timetable.The programmes are being held with local Sahodaya School Complex support, and CBSE has kept the format deliberately practical: It is offline, runs for a full day, and teachers are asked to bring the Kaushal Bodh textbooks so the discussion stays rooted in the actual classroom material.
Who should attend
CBSE’s notification does not position this as a teacher-only exercise. It names directors, principals, vice-principals, coordinators and teachers as participants–a signal that implementation is expected to be planned and supervised at the school leadership level, not left to one staff member as “extra work”.CBSE’s Community Building Programme: Locations, schedule and moreCBSE’s schedule runs from January 5 to January 31, 2026, across multiple cities. Each venue has a listed contact person, phone number and email, and teachers are asked to contact the venue school directly and confirm participation so logistics can be arranged. Here are the essentials teachers must know.
- Each CBP runs 9:00 am to 5:30 pm
- There is no fee
- No TA/DA is admissible
- Teachers should carry NCERT Kaushal Bodh textbooks
The key venues include Varanasi, Delhi, Gurugram Lucknow among others. Click here for complete details.CBSE’s skill education push is not asking schools to “add one more subject” in the conventional sense. It is asking them to build a structured block of time every week where children learn through work — the kind that involves planning, making, testing, fixing and presenting. Schools are expected to provide 110 hours a year for skill education (about 160 periods). The suggested pattern is two consecutive periods, twice a week, excluding exam time. This is a significant design choice. It tells schools that skill education will not work as a rushed, single-period activity. Children need enough time to set up, attempt, make mistakes, improve and document.
Projects, not chapters: What children will actually do
Every student is expected to complete three projects each year, across three broad work domains:
- Working with life forms
- Working with materials and machines
- Working in human services
By the end of Class 8, that becomes nine projects. Check details here.
CBSE skill education : Who will teach
Schools are expected to identify teachers from their existing staff, usually those whose academic subjects align best with the project themes, or those who have interest in leading them. If a vocational teacher is available, that teacher supports the work, but the model is clearly built to run even without a separate vocational faculty in every school.
How students will be evaluated
CBSE recommends that schools integrate this into internal assessment so that skill education does not become a “non-exam” subject students can ignore.
The year is expected to end with a Kaushal Mela (skill fair) where student projects are showcased.
What Kaushal Bodh books are in simple terms
The Kaushal Bodh books are NCERT’s structured “activity books” for Classes 6, 7 and 8. Each book contains six suggested projects — two under each work area — from which schools choose. Schools are also allowed to design their own projects, as long as they follow the guidelines and keep the work rooted in local context and available resources.
CBSE skill education mandate: What this means for schools and students
For years, “skill education” in schools has floated somewhere between a good intention and a forgotten timetable slot. CBSE’s January 5 CBPs are meant to end that ambiguity. Once teachers are trained and schools begin locking in the hours, projects and assessment, Skill Education stops being a token activity and starts behaving like a real part of schooling. For Class 6–8 students in 2026, the promise is quietly radical: school that teaches them not only to remember, but to make, fix, present, and understand how work actually happens in the world.
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