The Korean Educational Development Institute has declared: education in the AI era must shift from cultivating the ability to find correct answers to nurturing the ability to ask good questions. But reality is lagging behind. An $850M AI textbook project failed, and the paradigm shift has only just begun.
South Korea's high school credit system went fully nationwide starting with the 2025 freshman class. The government invested 15.7 billion won and relaxed requirements, but rural school inequality and teacher readiness remain real challenges.
South Korea set out to become the first country to bring AI-powered textbooks into public schools. Parliament then stripped those textbooks of their legal status. Here is how it unraveled.
South Korea launched an ambitious AI textbook program in March 2025. Within 4 months, it was scrapped. Here is what went wrong and what the world can learn from it.