• Govt. plans underway 
• Educationists largely sceptical on AI education plans 
• Significant infrastructure gaps to provide AI education 

Even as Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the field of education globally, Sri Lanka’s attempts at embracing this rapidly-evolving technology leave much to be desired. 

In planning to introduce courses on AI to the education system, the Cabinet on 10 February 2023 decided that it was appropriate to introduce the proposed courses with the recommendations made by the task force appointed for the formulation of a national strategy and plan related to AI. “As a part of the strategic plan, a pilot project is designed to introduce AI courses to general education,” the Government Information Department notes. 

The pilot project, intended to be implemented with the support of Microsoft, intends to;

• Revise the international syllabus implemented by Microsoft based on the recommendations of the National Institute of Education (NIE) and commence the proposed pilot projects from Grade 8 in schools where the necessary basic human resources are available
• Digitisation of schools selected for the pilot project under the facilities provided by Microsoft 
• Training of 100 ICT subject teachers as trainers by Microsoft 

UNESCO believes that AI has the potential to address some of the biggest challenges in education, innovate teaching and learning practices, and accelerate progress towards the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4). 

In its ‘Artificial Intelligence and Education: Guidance for Policy-Makers’ publication, it notes that the entry of AI into the world of education has meant that ‘intelligent,’ ‘adaptive,’ and ‘personalised’ learning systems are increasingly being developed by the private sector for deployment in schools and universities around the world. 

System unprepared 

However, questions remain on the feasibility of Sri Lanka’s plans for integrating and adopting AI into education, given the instability within the system that has been exacerbated since Covid disrupted education. 

Educationists remain largely sceptical, with Education Forum Sri Lanka Co-Founder Dr. Sujata Gamage noting that while integrating new technology is essential, much remains to be done before Sri Lanka is ready. 

She points out the National Education Policy Framework statement in this regard, which notes: “A transformation of education cannot be envisioned without an understanding of emerging technologies including AI, climate change, and local and global socioeconomic realities and their impact on education.”

Dr. Gamage expressed the belief that teaching AI to children was highly unrealistic, but that AI itself would be needed for learning. “Individualised learning is the most immediate impact of AI. You can’t teach children AI as AI is about machine learning, large language models, etc. They can have an understanding of AI, but you can’t have a course module on what AI is.”

She stressed on the distinction between learning AI and AI for learning: “We can have AI for teaching. You can have individualised learning, which requires that each child has some device, from which data can be gathered to analyse the child’s pattern of learning and compare, then guiding children in that direction. We do need to move towards individualised learning. However, this requires that our goals of education change,” she said. 

When it comes to AI for learning, a lot remained to be done in terms of structural changes, she said, noting, as per the National Education Policy Framework, that “irrespective of the future education scenario that may unfold, Sri Lanka cannot move forward without deep and systemic changes to the structuring of the sector”. 

“What would an AI course entail? Would they learn programming?” she questioned. “Even at university level, we don’t have AI courses. What exactly will be taught in these AI courses? We have a long way to go in our IT teaching; can we incorporate elements of AI into IT teaching?”

“As with any technology, there are users and developers. Even our universities are just beginning to offer AI courses for students to become developers. The work requires a good understanding of basic concepts in maths and statistics and/or good programming skills.”

She therefore criticised the concept of undertaking AI courses in school, saying: “Schoolchildren should first learn to be users by using AI and reflecting on their experience. Schools could get students to use ChatGPT for assignments and then discuss the validity of the output and how the output was generated. This could actually be a way to move students away from rote learning. Unfortunately, however, teachers won’t have time to do such things unless we change our exams and the way we measure education success. Right now, teachers barely have the time to finish the syllabus.”

Accordingly, she pointed out that focus was needed elsewhere in education: “In the present economic situation, we are not even giving enough nutrition for our children, so that should be our focus. Saying we’re going to use AI for learning or learning AI are simply buzzwords.”

Inhibited by challenges 

Similarly, Open University of Sri Lanka Faculty of Education Department of Secondary and Tertiary Education Head Prof. F.M. Nawastheen noted that while AI education had benefits, implementing it in Sri Lankan schools presented several challenges, although the Government’s recent approval of the pilot project for AI education offered a promising starting point. 

He noted that while AI offered great potential to improve the learning experience for both students and teachers and understanding the technology was becoming important for students as the world became more technology-driven, AI should ultimately be seen as a tool to support teachers and students, not as something that replaced tried-and-true teaching methods and the importance of human connection. 

Moreover, Sri Lanka’s current situation promises challenges for such plans. “The current economic crisis, limited infrastructure in many schools, and existing digital divides between students, teachers, and parents pose significant hurdles,” he said, adding: “To ensure long-term success, addressing these perennial, structural challenges is crucial.”

Addressing some of these challenges, he noted that Sri Lanka currently did not possess a sufficient number of trained teachers to provide AI education across all schools. With limited training opportunities, while the pilot project with Microsoft was training 100 teachers, this was a small-scale effort that failed to address the nationwide need, he noted. 

He pointed out other shortcomings such as the narrow focus, where the current training programme targeted a specific group of teachers and failed to cover the broader group of educators across all schools; the lack of a large-scale programme, there currently being no widespread programmes to train the large number of teachers needed to implement AI education across the country; and the specialised skills required, since teaching AI required not only basic computer skills but also a deeper understanding of AI concepts, applications, and how to integrate them effectively into the curriculum.

Moreover, he noted a lack of technological capacity in the school system itself. “Currently, Sri Lanka doesn’t have the necessary equipment and internet connection accessible to students/teachers from across all districts due to unequal resources, limited internet access, outdated computers and digital devices, and high-priced digital devices and taxing of educational equipment.”

Further, while there are ongoing efforts and positive developments, the current state of digitalisation of schools also presents challenges, he noted. 

Prof. Nawastheen also noted that while Sri Lanka was at an initial stage of exploring AI integration compared to some of its regional and global peers, the ongoing pilot project and potential for future development based on its learnings offered a promising starting point for Sri Lanka to catch up and build a strong and inclusive AI education ecosystem in the future.

Comparing Sri Lanka’s approach to that of other nations, he observed that the different approaches in terms of integrating AI education meant that while Sri Lanka had made progress, it might still need to catch up to some of its neighbours when it came to using AI in education. “Although Sri Lanka leads the region in general digital literacy (57.2%), exceeding Thailand and Indonesia, there’s a significant gap compared to Singapore (83.1%). This shows that Sri Lanka needs to keep working to improve digital skills across the country.”

He further noted that other countries were exploring AI education in various ways, with some likely to be focusing on small-scale pilot projects, while others may be making bigger changes to their national curriculum. “Countries like Singapore, South Korea, and Japan have invested heavily in AI development and are actively looking at ways to use it in education. These countries might be further ahead in terms of national plans, pilot programmes, and resource allocation. Countries known for innovative education systems, like Finland and Estonia, have already begun using AI tools and applications in specific areas. This might put them ahead of Sri Lanka in terms of practical implementation.”

However, he stressed: “It’s important to note that Sri Lanka is not standing still. The pilot project with Microsoft shows a commitment to exploring the potential of AI education. While smaller in scale compared to some other countries, it’s a starting point for learning, development, and potentially informing future national strategies.”

Practical concerns 

Meanwhile, cybersecurity analyst Asela Waidyalankara also noted that the concept lacked practicality when it came to implementation. 

“It is all well and good trying to introduce globally acceptable curriculum etc, but at the end of the day, one must ask how practical it is,” he said, pointing out that the ICT industry had an annual requirement of 30,000, while the combined output of ICT graduates in Sri Lanka was approximately 10,000. Given that this denoted a systematic issue, it demonstrated that ICT education must be expanded, he said, however noting that the outdated nature of the ICT course material meant that graduates were not adequately aligned with what was required by the private sector or the future of work. 

“Education must create a person ready for a job that is not here today. The job that a child will grow up to do in another 20 years’ time is not available today. The entire education system must be aligned to create a person who can thrive in such an environment.”

“Teaching AI sounds good in principle, but how will it be done in practical terms? The devil is in the details,” he quipped, referring to the current inadequacies in ICT education. “Even now, how many schools have ICT teachers? How long do those ICT teachers last? Mostly like an year or two, after which they shift to the private sector because they don’t see career growth as an ICT teacher. So how will AI be taught?”

Moreover, he noted that teaching AI would have to be an entirely different exercise to teaching ICT, as it would require different equipment and gadgets. “We will need to teach coding, AI, robotics, etc. but we lack the equipment for that.”

While AI in education can be used for content delivery, the more complex way is to teach about AI. “Within this, one needs to understand computer programming, how coding works, etc. and these need to be integrated before you can talk about AI. There’s a lot that needs to be understood before getting to AI and other countries are doing this,” he said, noting that certain regional peers were a step ahead in this. 

For instance, India is working with large tech companies and with a methodology where students were exposed to AI, coding, robotics from an early age. “They have invested and taken a long-term view on this, but we are attempting to do something immediately,” he pointed out. 

Govt. plans

Meanwhile, speaking to The Sunday Morning, Ministry of Education Secretary Wasantha Perera said that they had plans to teach subjects such as AI in schools utilising new educational methods, however stressing that work remained to be done to fully prepare for AI education. 

“When teaching AI, we won’t have teachers, etc. immediately – we will not have the capacity to implement things at once. Therefore, we will be starting from a small-scale and certain groups are voluntarily advising us on this.”

She acknowledged that the resources for teaching AI were incomplete, with the distribution of resources among schools being unequal as well. “Even though schools may not have 100% of the requirements fulfilled, they will engage in these plans within their capacities.” 

She stressed that they were encouraging both public and private schools to engage in the plans as well, adding that technical facilities would be provided to willing schools. 

“We plan to open AI clubs in selected schools, which is still at the planning stage. However, this is already underway in certain schools.”

Moreover, she added that a syllabus was being formulated by the National Institute of Education, which would need to be trialled and piloted before launch. Further, plans were also being made to train teachers for the task, she noted.