What happened

Originally aimed at transforming education with personalised, AI-powered learning tailored to each student’s pace and level, South Korea planned to introduce tablet-based textbooks for subjects such as maths, English, informatics and Korean. 

However, concerns about inadequate teacher training, increased screen time, data privacy, and regional disparities quickly emerged. These issues, paired with political shifts, led the country's Parliament in August 2025 to revoke the legal status of AI textbooks as official teaching materials and reclassify them as supplementary aids, effectively defunding their use.

Why it happened

According to Seoul, the AI textbooks were seen to bring benefits such as offering customised learning content tailored to individual student data and enhancing their personalised learning experience.

The textbooks would be designed to adapt to different learning speeds, with teachers monitoring student progress through dashboards. 

The plan faltered due to rushed implementation without sufficient pilot testing and stakeholder engagement, highlighting transparency and accountability limitations.

Teachers struggled with increased workloads and uncertainty, while parents feared excessive digital exposure harming children’s well-being. 

The uneven adoption, more prevalent in conservative regions, risked deepening educational inequalities.