How AI is playing an important role in the education sector in the Global South?

Teacher training is becoming the critical link between AI adoption and responsible classroom learning.

A student 1,000 kilometres away from the capital city is using an AI tutor to practice his English. A teacher spends her evening trying to figure out whether the work in front of her is actually the student's own. Neither of them asked to be put in this position, yet this is the reality in modern classrooms everywhere, regardless of a school's official policy.

Discussions surrounding AI in education often treat integration as a decision still waiting to be made: should schools adopt these tools, hold off, or wait for regulation? In reality, the tools are already in students' hands. The existing question isn't whether AI will enter the classroom, but whether anyone will teach people how to use it responsibly, or if everyone will be left to navigate it alone.

By default, the latter is happening. Students rely on AI for homework, test prep, and even personal support, usually without guidance on its limitations and the risks of over-reliance. Meanwhile, teachers are expected to detect AI-generated submissions while simultaneously adopting the technology themselves, often without formal training. Beneath this tension is the familiar issue of rapid technological shifts that consistently benefit well-resourced schools and students, threatening to widen existing educational divides.