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AI in schools will disadvantage low-income students, report warns

Published: 21 Aug. 2025, 20:57

A student studies math using a digital textbook during a demonstration class at an elementary school in Chuncheon, Gangwon, on May 7. [YONHAP]

Korea’s push to expand digital learning tools in classrooms may be widening the gulf between students who thrive and those who struggle, a government think tank warned on Thursday.

High-performing students and those from well-off families tend to show stronger digital skills, reinforcing a “rich get richer, poor get poorer” pattern in education, the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI) suggested in its report.

In its report, KEDI analyzed how the spread of digital resources is reshaping education. The agency cited the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's 2022 assessment that students in higher-achieving groups actively use digital tools in class.

“Students who already do well academically also tend to use digital devices more effectively,” said many of the 39 teachers whom KEDI interviewed last year.

The study highlighted how digital literacy often reflects socioeconomic backgrounds.

KEDI’s 2023 school education survey found that children from families with higher income and education levels consistently scored better across all areas of digital competence. For example, in the category of searching and storing digital materials, high-income students scored 3.75, compared with 3.63 for students from low-income households.

“Digital literacy interacts with preexisting offline education gaps and tends to reflect or even deepen traditional inequalities rooted in families’ economic, social and cultural capital,” said KEDI research fellow Nam Shin-dong.

“Digital resources can function as a new form of cultural and social capital,” Nam added.

Students study math using digital textbooks during a demonstration class at an elementary school in Chuncheon, Gangwon, on May 7. [YONHAP]

The report warned that without a stronger policy response, these disparities could worsen.

“If schools fail to address this issue, gaps in digital literacy will act as a mechanism that reinforces educational inequality,” Nam said.

To address the problem, the report calls for restructured curricula that integrate multiple forms of literacy and a school model suited to the digital age.

Nam emphasized that as artificial intelligence becomes more common, “learning gaps may grow larger in areas such as critical judgment, reasoning, creativity and independent problem solving.”

Public education, Nam argued, must go beyond simply offering devices and instead cultivate “students’ ability to express, interpret and think autonomously within new literacy environments.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM MIN-SANG [[email protected]]