UNESCO’s Digital Learning Week 2025: The Future of Education

This week, UNESCO’s Digital Learning Week 2025 was held in Paris, where participants explored how artificial intelligence is reshaping education and what it looks like for learners, educators, and education systems globally.  

In a world where AI’s prevalence has become increasingly apparent, we must learn to navigate all aspects of it: its challenges, benefits, and everything else in between.  

To address this, UNESCO invited 21 global thinkers, leaders, and policymakers in education to share their voices on the subject of AI in the classroom. These global leaders delivered thought-provoking pieces of themes ranging from philosophical reflection to concrete policy recommendations.  

The works were turned into a publication titled “AI and the future of education: disruptions, dilemmas, and directions,” which offers a series of diverse accounts on AI from around the world. The publication delves deeply into ethical and philosophical dilemmas posed by AI’s disruptive influence in education, introducing recommendations for sustainable human-machine co-existence. It also highlights the rise of the AI divide, as one in three people globally continue to face challenges in online connectivity. 

During Digital Learning Week 2025, UNESCO gathered ministers and leaders from around the world who defined a collective mission: AI in education must be human-centered, equitable, safe, and ethical.  

The meeting underscored several directions for the future of AI in education: 

• Prioritize sustainable digital infrastructure  

• Protect all learners through safety and ethics regulations  

• Safeguard educators' rights 

• Design AI to reflect local contexts, languages, and cultures 

• Guarantee global solidarity and collective action; no country can navigate this transition alone  

UNESCO’s “Teachers Cannot Be Coded” discusses this message as well: teachers are not replaceable by algorithms. Technology may support learning, but it cannot replicate the empathy, creativity, and human connection that teachers provide. As AI becomes more and more embedded into classrooms, safeguarding the central role of educators is crucial. Teachers must be empowered, not put on the sidelines, through training, rights protections, and inclusion in the design of learning systems.  

UNESCO continues to work diligently with governments to support inclusive and human-centered digital learning ecosystems. Since 2024, the organization has supported 58 countries in designing or improving digital and AI competency frameworks, training, and curricula for educators and policymakers alike.  

To learn more, please visit UNESCO.