Schools in Asia are embracing artificial intelligence in classrooms

Anaiya Singhvi loves school, but she often finds chemistry tough going.

"It's kind of hard to visualise in real life since it's about molecules and atoms," the Singapore-based secondary school student said.

"I've been using AI to help me with that."

The 15-year-old uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like Google's Notebook LM to explain concepts, summarise documents and answer her questions when studying at home.

Singapore is one of several Asian countries fast adopting AI in education.

At Saint Anthony's Canossian Secondary School, where Anaiya studies, the chemistry department uses AI to help students identify topics to focus on, based on their incorrect answers in practice exams.

"I'm now able to do targeted revision in the topics I am weaker in, rather than studying all of them," she said.

"This really made studying chemistry a lot easier for me."

Elsewhere in Asia, nations have declared their ambitions to use and teach AI in schools as they jostle to lead a global race for dominance in the technology.

Parts of China are making it compulsory, with some schools required to teach at least six hours of AI education a year for lower-grade students, and one hour a fortnight for higher grades.

But in some countries, ambitious plans to roll out AI tech in schools have met backlash.

The push to bring AI into schools also coincides with emerging research about the technology's potential risks for students, particularly their creativity and critical thinking.

'Sparring partner, not spoon feeder'

A report by the US-based Brookings Institution's Center for Universal Education in January found the risks of using AI in education currently "overshadow" the benefits.

That was mainly because those risks "undermine children's foundational development", it said.

The study used interviews, focus groups and consultations with 500 students, parents, teachers and technology experts in 50 countries and reviewed more than 400 studies.

Among the concerns it raised was AI's impact on cognitive development as students "off-loaded" mental tasks.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says there is "growing emphasis" in Asia on cultivating responsible AI use, critical thinking and ethical awareness.

"These efforts have focused on embedding … critical evaluation of AI outputs and ethics-based guidance into teacher education programs and school curricula," said Iris Heung Yue Yim, a researcher in AI literacy and education at the University of Cambridge.

In Singapore, where AI literacy is part of the curriculum, Education Minister Desmond Lee said the government's approach was to avoid "cognitive offloading" among students.

"With the potential of AI being so significant, all the more we need to ground our children and students in strong fundamentals … and most importantly [for them to] learn how to synthesise information, to have inventive thinking, adaptive thinking and critical thinking," he told local media in March.

Anaiya is mindful of the risks of AI and careful not to rely too heavily on it in her homework.

"I have to look at all the sources it [uses] … so that I don't use any wrong information," she said.

Anaiya said she used AI such as ChatGPT to advise on improving her essays, not to write them for her.

"But I have to remind myself that that will not be beneficial for me."

Her father, Vishal Singhvi, who works in AI strategy at a large multinational firm, has guided her on using the technology responsibly.

"I encourage her to use it as a tutor who would basically throw quizzes," he said.

"Even dealing with difficult subjects and challenging topics, she's able to leverage AI as a sparring partner to really challenge her assumptions."

The Singapore government launched AI Singapore in 2017 with the goal of building the country's AI capabilities.

The initiative has helped schools teach AI literacy and previously ran a two-year student outreach program, which included training in programming skills, critical thinking and practical experience in AI projects.

Koo Sengmeng, AI Singapore's director of talent and ecosystem, said it now works with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Digital Development and Information to identify high-ability learners and develop a pathway for them to become future AI inventors, creators or scientists.

But Singapore also wants to make the broader population "bilingual" in using AI at work.

"Being bilingual means you're not only fluent in your professional domain, you should be fluent in some way in how to apply AI to it," Mr Koo said.

AI education is 'national survival' for some

In South Korea, the government wants the country to be one of the world's top three AI powerhouses, and says growing AI talent is a "national survival strategy".

"Based on a sense of urgency that 'falling behind by a single day in the intensifying global AI competition could mean losing an entire generation', the government is concentrating its efforts on preparing for a transition to an AI-driven society," a Ministry of Education press release said in November.

But the country reversed course last year on an initial plan to embed AI in schools, effectively abandoning the previous government's efforts to roll out AI textbooks.

The devices were meant to "personalise" learning, adjusting material to students' level of ability based on their responses.

It involved teachers spending less time transmitting knowledge and instead facilitating "projects, problem-solving, and collaboration", a World Bank blog said in 2024.

Neil Selwyn, a Monash University professor researching AI in schools, said the program had been controversial and lacked buy-in from teachers and schools.

"It was just rolled out far too quickly, and it was quite extensive," he said.

After President Lee Jae-myung gained power last year, his government released a new plan in November including an "AI innovation talent pipeline".

This included increasing the number of AI-focused secondary schools and linking them to university programs, according to local media reports.

AI-focused schools allocate more hours to information technology and AI subjects than regular schools.

"[The new plan] is a bit more thought through, starting off a bit small scale, which is probably the best way of doing it," Professor Selwyn said.

Last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping signalled that AI education was a priority, saying it was necessary "to continuously cultivate high-quality talents".

The nation's Ministry of Education in 2024 said schools should start raising awareness of AI from lower primary school age, and teach students to use advanced AI technologies at the upper middle school level.

The rollout of China's AI education initiatives has varied across the country.

Since 2025, Beijing's provincial authorities have set a compulsory eight hours of AI education a year for both primary and secondary schools, while Guangdong Province also mandates six hours of AI education annually for lower grades, increasing to one hour a fortnight for grades 10 and 11.

Some schools teach programming and run extracurricular clubs in robotics and coding, while for assignments, students are encouraged to use AI to help brainstorm or organise their ideas, according to Chinese state media.

China's central government wanted schools to make teaching and learning more efficient by embedding the technology in classrooms, said Jeremy Knox, associate professor of digital education at the University of Oxford.

"By training young people in AI skills, as well as by making general education more efficient through the use of AI in the classroom, China sees opportunities to grow their prowess as an AI-driven nation, with all the economic benefits that are assumed to come with that," he said.

'AI last, not first'

Japan is going in a different direction from its neighbours.

Its Ministry of Education takes a "neutral stance" on the technology and is monitoring results from AI pilots at schools, said Shizuka Shirai, associate professor of education technology at the University of Osaka.

"The ministry's primary concern is whether generative AI genuinely contributes to the development of children's competencies and whether it is being used effectively in pursuit of educational goals," she said.

"There is still much about how generative AI can be used in schools, and where care is needed, that can only be understood through actual practice."

Australia's education authorities have released guidance on using AI responsibly in schools, and the federal government has flagged it wants education ministers from around the country to discuss AI at a meeting later this year.

Professor Selwyn said many schools were taking a slow approach, seeing how the technology panned out elsewhere and developing policies for using AI safely.

He said rather than finding ways to squeeze it into classrooms, discussions on AI education in Australia should focus on the purpose of schools.

"And then [consider] where does AI fit into those ways of solving problems?" he said.

"So AI last rather than AI first."

But AI is already entering schools through popular software like Google Classroom, while students are increasingly using it for their studies.

"These are important conversations to be having before it just becomes part of the everyday water that we swim in," Professor Selwyn said.