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Good practice Imported

Experience AI Comes to Uzbekistan — UNICEF's Tinkering with Tech and AI Expands National STEM Labs

Uzbekistan · Tashkent · See the Uzbekistan profile · See the Tashkent profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 73% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

UNICEF, Arm, the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Micro:bit Educational Foundation brought the Experience AI curriculum to Uzbekistan's 50 government STEM Labs from January 2026, extending a 2024 Honduras-Maldives-Montenegro-Vietnam pilot with a stronger AI-literacy focus.

50 schools
Schools equipped with Innovative STEM Labs (nationwide, under Ishonch 2030)
Experience AI Comes to Uzbekistan — UNICEF's Tinkering with Tech and AI Expands National STEM Labs

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
UNICEF Uzbekistan / Raspberry Pi Foundation
Period
STEM Labs built under Ishonch 2030 project; AI-focused expansion announced January 2026, ongoing
Keywords
AI literacy, STEM education, digital skills, teacher training

Context

Tinkering with Tech launched in 2024 as a UNICEF Global Learning and Innovation Hub initiative with Arm and Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs, piloted in Honduras, the Maldives, Montenegro and Viet Nam. At a partnership workshop in Helsinki on 28-29 January 2026, UNICEF and Arm, together with the Micro:bit Educational Foundation and the Raspberry Pi Foundation, announced 'Tinkering with Tech and AI,' expanding the programme to Lao PDR, Ukraine and Uzbekistan with the Raspberry Pi Foundation's Experience AI curriculum added to build AI literacy. In Uzbekistan, under the government's Ishonch 2030 education project, UNICEF and the Ministry of Preschool and School Education have equipped Innovative STEM Labs in 50 schools nationwide with smartboards, laptops, 3D printers, Arduino kits and micro:bits; the national NGO Tech4Impact supports local delivery.

Results

Published material to date describes programme design, infrastructure investment and a single trainer's qualitative reflection ('I have changed my mind about AI and now I have a better understanding of it') rather than measured student learning outcomes. The Raspberry Pi Foundation's own account is candid about the challenge ahead: some Uzbekistani classrooms have laptops and interactive whiteboards, while others operate with limited electricity, lower digital literacy and devices shared among many students — an acknowledged, unresolved gap rather than a solved problem.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Infrastructure (smartboards, laptops, 3D printers, Arduino kits, micro:bits) across 50 schools funded via Ishonch 2030 and Arm/Finland MFA support; no total programme budget published.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — STEM Labs built under Ishonch 2030 (predating this record); AI-literacy-specific expansion announced January 2026 and ongoing.
Staffing & skills
UNICEF Uzbekistan and the Ministry of Preschool and School Education run the programme; the national NGO Tech4Impact supports local delivery; Arm, the Micro:bit Educational Foundation and the Raspberry Pi Foundation are technical/curriculum partners

Conditions for success

  • Built on already-established infrastructure (50 government Innovative STEM Labs under Ishonch 2030) rather than starting from scratch
  • Multi-year funding from Arm and Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs
  • Stated long-term goal of embedding the programme in the national curriculum

Common failure modes

  • The Raspberry Pi Foundation itself flags an unresolved gap between well-equipped and under-resourced classrooms (electricity, digital literacy, shared devices)
  • Only a single trainer's qualitative reflection is published; no pre/post student assessment data exists for the Uzbekistan rollout

Where it fits

Governance type
UN agency + national Ministry of Education partnership
Scale
national (50 schools)
Income level
lower-middle-income

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

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