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South Korea's AI digital textbooks

South Korea · Seoul · See the South Korea profile

A ₩1.2-trillion national push to put AI-adaptive textbooks in classrooms from 2025 — downgraded from mandatory to optional within four months after backlash over privacy, screen time and a rushed rollout; adoption fell from 37% to 19%.

South Korea's AI digital textbooks

Details

Promoter
Republic of Korea, Ministry of Education
Keywords
Teaching practice & content creation, adaptive textbooks, cautionary, national programme

Description

South Korea introduced AI-adaptive digital textbooks nationwide in March 2025 (English, maths and more), backed by over ₩1.2 trillion in public funding and large publisher investment.

Within four months, amid teacher and parent backlash, lawsuits over data-privacy risks and screen time, technical glitches and factual errors, the government downgraded them from mandatory to optional; their official textbook status was later revoked and adoption fell from 37% to 19%.

A cautionary national-scale case: a rushed, top-down AI rollout without adequate groundwork, scored low across impact, equity, ethics and capability.

Read the full analysis: https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10546695

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

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