Artificial intelligence goes to school
Beijing—Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant concept from science fiction. It has become a force that can reshape industries, societies, and the very essence of human interaction. Education, the cornerstone of social progress, is increasingly becoming intertwined with AI. The way countries equip the next generation with AI skills could determine their technological edge in the future. In this area, China is quietly taking the lead.
While Western countries, especially the United States, have grabbed headlines for AI breakthroughs, their approach to K-12 (kindergarten through Grade 12) AI education is cautious, fragmented, and largely pilot-driven. China’s approach, in contrast, is a methodical, policy-driven blueprint that lays a solid foundation for AI literacy from primary school level upward.
China’s rapid progress in AI education is the result of careful top-level planning and coordinated action. National and local authorities have worked together to ensure that AI education is a structured part of students’ learning journey. Schools across China now include AI courses in the regular curriculum; teachers receive special training in AI and digital learning platforms support AI instruction.
However, policy alone is not enough. China has established a collaborative mechanism involving enterprises, universities, and research institutions. It integrates leading tech companies in codesigning curricula, training teachers, and building AI learning platforms. This three-tiered approach—central policy, local execution, and broad social participation—ensures AI education is not only conceptual but also operational.
China’s AI education policy avoids reducing students to code-crunching machines. Instead, it embeds AI across traditional subjects, such as the Chinese language, art, and comprehensive practice courses, creating a “discipline integration and technology empowerment” model. In many schools, art classes now incorporate AI image-generation tools. In other areas, generative AI is integrated into writing courses, prompting students to critique, revise, and reimagine AI-generated text. AI education is as much about reshaping cognitive and expressive abilities as it is about teaching technical skills.
China’s AI education path contrasts with that of the US, where its K-12 implementation is decentralized and uneven, largely dependent on local initiatives or partnerships with higher education institutions.
AI education in the US is promoted often through extracurricular clubs, summer camps, or online courses. While flexible and innovative, it is inconsistent in coverage, continuity, and scale. Concerns over ethics, safety and privacy sometimes restrict classroom usage of generative AI tools, creating a “tech enthusiasm, educational hesitation” paradox.
For China, AI literacy is about developing foundational competency, akin to reading, writing, and arithmetic. Students are taught to view AI not only as a set of tools but also as a digital language and medium for critical thinking, creativity, and ethical awareness. China’s approach is “institution-driven and universal,” aimed at ensuring every child develops core capabilities, while the US’ approach is “market-driven and selective,” letting individual interests determine engagement. In a rapidly evolving AI landscape, early structured cultivation of cognitive frameworks may prove decisive when it comes to nurturing the next generation of tech talents.
No system is perfect. Some Chinese schools still focus narrowly on tools, with shallow, homogenized curricula. Teachers’ expertise varies, and evaluation methods to measure AI literacy levels are not yet fully developed. The bigger challenge is to prevent AI education from becoming a new form of exam-oriented competition.
How can students learn technical skills while cultivating ethical judgment, social responsibility, and humanistic sensitivity? Some schools are already exploring AI ethics, algorithmic bias, and socially impactful subjects, encouraging reflective thinking alongside technical mastery. To truly become AI literate, one needs to have technical understanding, collaborative capability and value-based judgment—a human-centered rather than purely technocratic approach.
China’s push to integrate AI into foundational education echoes Deng Xiaoping’s statement in 1984, in which he emphasized that “computer literacy should start with children.”
In the era of global restructuring of education and rapid digital transformation, China is reconstructing its young citizens’ cognitive abilities and problem-solving skills to gain a decisive advantage. In this high-stakes race for talent, China has quietly moved ahead. China Daily/Asia News Network
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Wu Yonghe is a professor at the faculty of education in East China Normal University.
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The Philippine Daily Inquirer is a member of the Asia News Network, an alliance of 22 media titles in the region.
