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7 April 2023 (Last update:20 April 2023)

On 23 March 2023, UNESCO and the KIX Africa 21 Hub brought together approximately 400 participants from 60 countries for the online launch of the French version of the UNESCO publication “AI and education: Guidance for policy-makers”. The event convened policy-makers of 15 Francophone countries and facilitated knowledge sharing and policy debates on how AI can be leveraged to accelerate the achievement of SDG 4. It was organized during the 2023 edition of the French Language and Francophonie Week, seeking to promote linguistic and cultural diversities in the digitalization process.

The publication “AI and education: Guidance for policy-makers” is a key tool to empower policy-makers to become AI-ready. Developed in line with the 2019 Beijing Consensus on Artificial Intelligence and Education, it upholds UNESCO's humanistic vision for the ethical use of AI. The growing urgency posed by AI technologies, like ChatGPT, has reinforced the relevance of this publication, which has become one of UNESCO's most downloaded publications, providing strong validation of the importance of this topic.

In her opening address, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education Stefania Giannini emphasized the urgency for policy-makers to examine how regulations and policies should adapt to the emerging and uncharted challenges posed by AI on ethical and pedagogical issues. She highlighted the importance of adopting a human-centred approach to ensure that the development of AI enhances human capacities without undermining them. Ms Giannini presented UNESCO’s work on AI in education and the larger portfolio of policy guidance on digital learning provided by the organization to Member States, as well as the UN initiative Gateways to Public Digital Learning launched at the Transforming Education Summit in 2022, which aims to expand access to quality digital learning content for all.

The challenges and opportunities of AI in education

The launch of the Guidance was followed by high-level discussions on the role of AI in education, the challenges and opportunities it presents, and the need for ethical policies to govern it. The Secretary General of the CONFEMEN, the Director of IFEF and the Director of Projects of AUF highlighted the promises and challenges held by AI to train the citizens of tomorrow. The Coordinator of the KIX Africa 21 Hub offered a brief overview of the Hub and its programmes, while UNESCO’s Chief of the Unit for Technology and AI in Education presented an overview of the Guidance for policy-makers.

During a high-level panel discussion, representatives from five countries, including Ministers of Education from Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea-Bissau, and representatives from Cabo Verde and Burundi, discussed their country's national strategies or initiatives for leveraging AI to achieve SDG 4. The panel also addressed issues of governance of AI in education and developing the capacity to ensure AI is used for the common good. Other themes presented the discussion included country approaches, efforts to regulate data usage, the role of the IFADEM project in digitalizing education, facilitating access to digital technologies for students, plans for inclusion of AI in education, and challenges in energy production, bandwidth, equipment and data security.

A second technical panel analysed the action plans of countries to operationalize and implement the national strategies on AI with a focus on ensuring quality and equity. It also examined the national measures being taken to tackle the challenges posed by AI in terms of ethics, accountability and trust. Interventions included representatives of Cabo Verde, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire and experts from Tunisia and France.

UNESCO has supported more than 70 Member States in developing national policies on digital learning through provision of guidance and capacity development workshops. “AI and education: guidance for policy-makers” is an integral part of UNESCO’s portfolio for supporting digital learning policies which include other recent guidelines on policy planning, including the Guidelines on the Development of Open Educational Resources Policies, Guidelines for ICT in education policies and masterplans and Education and blockchain.

The launch event of the French version was organized by the UNESCO Unit for Technology and AI in Education, and the Multisectoral Regional Office of UNESCO in Dakar, in collaboration with the KIX Africa 21 Hub and its managing consortium, namely Institut de la Francophonie pour l'éducation et la formation (IFEF), the Conférence des ministres de l'Education des Etats et gouvernements de la Francophonie (CONFEMEN), and the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF).

This launch event is part of a series of launch events organized by UNESCO for multiple-language versions of the Guidance, following the launches of the Arabic and Spanish versions.

The Arabic version of the publication was launched in March 2022 with nearly 500 attendees, in cooperation with the Regional Centre for Educational Planning, the Minister of Education of the United Arab Emirates, and Gulf region representatives. In April 2022, the Spanish version of the publication was launched in partnership with the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago and UNESCO category 2 centre Cetic.br (the Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society) with over 300 participants from more than 40 countries in attendance.

https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-cooperates-francophone-countries-plan-ai-and-education-policies