When education systems function well, they create the right conditions for learning. This comes straight from the World Bank’s 2018 report on realising education’s promise.
We’re now launching the Ministries of Education AI Challenge. It’s not about building shiny new tools for the sake of it—it’s about generating real-world evidence on whether AI can help education systems work better.
Our hypothesis is: if ministries and district officials are equipped to use AI effectively, they can deliver more with less, faster.
We’re exploring:
- Does investing in AI for service delivery actually work?
- Where does AI have greater or lesser impact?
- Which services should we prioritise and how can we unlock momentum within Ministries to make it happen?
How We Approach It: A Practical Framework for Education in the Age of AI
Our role is to generate timely, actionable evidence on strategies that can help narrow the learning divide in the age of AI. We take a hypothesis-driven approach, testing ideas and learning what works in real-world education systems. Our framework is designed to guide intentional decisions about AI today, while keeping an eye on the future of education. It also helps us prioritise which ideas are most promising to test.
Could this framework be useful in your work?
Introducing the Ministries
Philippines
🎯 The Education Centre for AI Readiness is working within the Department of Education to test AI tools for effective education interventions. The malnutrition tool is being piloted with 10, then 100 schools, with plans for national roll out.
Pakistan
🎯 The Pakistan Institute for Education is partnering with Western Sydney University to test an AI model trained in Urdu. The team will be checking upwards of 1000 assessments with assessors, and then with the AI tool, to see the difference in process and results.
Bangladesh
🎯The Ministry of Education has partnered with Aspire 2 Innovate, to develop a dashboard which brings together student assessment data, tracks it against national standards, and where it falls below average, uses insights from the data to recommend policy implementations.
Kenya
🎯 The Ministry of Education is currently building a new Education Management Information System, and is exploring how an AI model could reduce data inconsistencies, therefore providing more accurate insights into school performance and needs.
Nigeria
🎯 The Federal Ministry of Education’s Information Computing and Technology team is learning how to embed AI into their existing products and processes, to ensure the sustainability of AI capabilities beyond this programme.
Sierra Leone
🎯 The Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education is building an AI-powered chatbot to support effective policy knowledge management and usage across different departments.
Click on the Map to Learn More About the Ministries’ Hypothesis
Our hypothesis is: if ministries and district officials are equipped to use AI effectively, they can deliver more with less, faster”.
AI for Real-World Delivery Challenges
Archive of Work
Further Reading
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EdTech Hub’s AI Observatory is made possible by the support of UK International Development.
